I was recently introduced to Jennifer Miller, journalist, novelist, and dachshund enthusiast, via a mutual friend. Her debut novel, The Year of the Gadfly, is the story of an intrepid teenager reporter who happens to chat with the ghost of Edward R. Murrow. When the opportunity to interview Jennifer presented itself, I grabbed my handy notebook, a pen, and my fedora.(1)
Congratulations on the publication of The Year of the Gadfly. Your experience as a journalist informed your first novel. Have you been interested in both journalism and creative writing since you were a kid?
I've always wanted to be a fiction writer, but I was a reluctant journalist. When I was naughty, instead of taking away my TV privileges, my parents would force me to read the newspaper!
Oh my goodness. That's fantastic.
Eventually, I came to love working in both fields. Reporting really informs my fiction writing, because it introduces me to strange and amazing people and places I'd never be able to meet otherwise.
What drove you to write your first novel?
Gadfly is partly based on the death of my high school boyfriend, Ben, who was killed in a car accident the summer before my senior year. I wanted to give Ben new life in this book and honor his memory. The first date scene in the book (you'll know it when you read it!) is almost exactly what happened on my first date with Ben.
You must have been writing directly from the heart. Was Gadfly your first completed manuscript?
I have a non-fiction book, Inheriting the Holy Land, about Israeli and Palestinian teenagers. It came out in 2005.
Iris, the protagonist of Gadfly, confides in the ghost of Edward R. Murrow. Which famous reporter would you have liked to have as a co-worker?
That's a great question. I would have LOVED to know Murrow. He was totally committed to his job. He insisted on flying bombing missions with the British air force during the second world war and took down Senator Joseph McCarthy in the 1950's. The only problem is that I absolutely despise cigarettes and Murrow was a chain smoker. (Actually, most journalists of his era were.)
I'm the most anti-smoking person ever. Was Mariana Academy inspired by schools you attended as a teen?
Yes! Mariana is a hybrid between my prep school and my brother's. My prep school was very alternative. We called our teachers by their first names and had an open campus. But the school was also incredibly politically correct -- maybe too politically correct, so some of that made it into the novel. My brother went to a very traditional all-boys school where the teachers were strict and the school required a uniform. Mariana Academy is mostly like that -- which is why the students in the novel are so eager to rebel.
As a journalist, what beat(s) do you most like covering?
I don't have a specific beat, but I've been drawn to covering veterans, motorcyclists, and Native Americans. In fact, I've covered motorcycle-riding Native American vets! A few years ago, I rode across the country on the back of a motorcycle with a group of Vietnam vets. That reporting formed the basis of my next novel, about a young woman on a cross-country motorcycle trip with her veteran father.
My favorite story that I've written recently was a piece for Hemispheres Magazine (that's the inflight mag for United/Continental Airlines) about a small town in Italy that elected a prince. The town believes it's a sovereign country, even though only 300 people live there!
(Click here to read the article.)
For you, what is the most enjoyable part of researching a story or outlining a novel? Do you find the prep work to be tedious or inspiring?
The answer depends on the type of prep work. If I'm out reporting and interviewing sources, I have a fabulo
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Posted on 6/15/2012
Blog: Little Willow - Bildungsroman (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: interviews, books, blog tour, sbbt, Add a tag
Posted on 6/14/2012
Blog: Little Willow - Bildungsroman (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: interviews, books, graphic novels, contests, illustrators, sbbt, Add a tag
Today, author/artist Dave Roman and I talking about illustration, inspiration, boats that are teenagers, and things and people which are purposely and hilariously overdramatic. We're also talking about the White Rabbit from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland traveling through a wormhole. Care to join us? You should - especially since the first two people to comment on this entry will win a copy of one of Dave's books!
In fifteen words or less, how would you describe your style of illustration?
Cute and cartoony, with thick brushy lines. Characters usually have dots for eyes. Noses optional.
Do you feel as if your artwork is a natural extension of yourself?
I've been drawing as long as I can remember, and usually find a way to work it into everything I do. I'm probably more comfortable hiding behind my comics than I am talking to people at parties!
If I were to look at the sketchbooks you filled as a teenager, what would I see?
Unlike most carefree teenagers, my sketchbooks were full of angst, despair and overdramatic responses to ex-girlfriends.
How difficult is it for you see something in your mind's eye and then get it on the page?
Completely impossible. The images in my mind are out of focus, amorphous, and tricky to peg down. It's like having three versions of an idea overlapping at the same time. When I translate it for the physical world, I have to decide which is the final, "locked-in" image. They're not allowed to dance and change the way they did in my mind. Luckily, as time passes, I start to forget what I originally imagined and learn to love the final for what it is.
You teamed up with your long-time friend John Green for your new graphic novel, Teen Boat! You two have been working together since your days at The School of Visual Arts, right?
I met John Green at a Long Island comic convention while I was still in high school. He's a few years older and was already a student at the School of Visual Arts, which is where I wanted to go to college. We hit it off pretty quick! Within weeks, we were collaborating on a bunch of crazy comics, and devising publishing schemes. About two years later, I wrote John a script for a 24-page comic called Quicken Forbidden that he drew as a class project. We wanted to do something inspired by our mutual love of Akira, Jim Henson's fantasy movies, and Chris Bachalo comics. The story was a sci-fi twist on Alice in Wonderland, about a girl named Jax Epoch who chases a white rabbit into a wormhole, and discovers an alternate dimension. But instead of having adventures there, she "borrows" a spell book and magic armor, bringing them back to NYC, which of course creates world-bleeding chaos of apocalyptic proportions. John and I self-published the first issue of Quicken Forbidden in 1997 and distributed it to comic shops across the US and Canada. This was during the height of the "bad girl" comics boom (what I refer to as a pre-Buffy the Vampire Slayer world), so Jax Epoch was our attempt at creating a kick-ass girl hero who looked a lot more like the type of awesome, albeit nerdy, girls we hung out with.
Three cheers for Alice, Buffy, and girls who are awesome, smart, and strong! What inspired Teen Boat!? Are you a nautical enthusiast?
Having worked on Teen Boat!, I've certainly grown to appreciate all things nautical! But oddly enough, the inspiration came to us while we were on a bus. Long trips can often lead to loopy thoughts, especially for comic creators. One minute John Green and I are discussing 80's cartoons and the spectrum of cool vs. less-cool transformation powers, then we're talking about imaginary boardroom meetings gone wrong, and before long we w
Posted on 6/10/2012
Blog: Little Willow - Bildungsroman (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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June is here, and it's brought along the 2012 Summer Blog Blast Tour! Created by Colleen from Chasing Ray in 2007, the Summer Blog Blast Tour (SBBT) is a series of author interviews posted at various blogs over the course of a week. The SBBT led to the Winter Blog Blast Tour, which happens roughly six months later with a different bunch of authors and bloggers.
This week, I will be posting all-new interviews with here at Bildungsroman with Mike Mignola (Baltimore, Hellboy), Dave Roman (Teen Boat!, Astronaut Academy), and Jennifer Miller (The Year of the Gadfly).
Here's the complete SBBT 2012 schedule:
Monday, June 11th
Kate Milford at Chasing Ray
Randa Abdel-Fattah at Crazy QuiltEdi
Tim Lebbon at Bildungsroman
Nalo Hopkinson at TheHappyNappyBookseller
Tuesday, June 12th
Timothy Decker at Chasing Ray
YS Lee at The YA YA YAs
Tanita Davis at TheHappyNappyBookseller
Wednesday, June 13th
Cynthia Levinson at TheHappyNappyBookseller
Amy Reed at Stacked
Rosemary Clement-Moore at Finding Wonderland
Thursday, June 14th
Dave Roman at Bildungsroman
Devine at Crazy QuiltEdi
Robin LaFevers at Finding Wonderland
Friday, June 15th
Benjamin Alire Sáenz at TheHappyNappyBookseller
Jennifer Miller at Bildungsroman
Ashley Hope Perez at Crazy QuiltEdi
By: Pam Coughlan,
on 7/15/2011
Blog: MotherReader (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Interviews, Middle-Grade, SBBT, Add a tag
This interview starts a over a month ago in a bar in New York City. I was attending the Kid Lit Drink Night after Book Expo America when I ran into someone I actually knew, Eric Wight of the Frankie Pickle books. He introduced me to his fellow author buddies. I did not recognize the names, but the books I knew. Aaron Starmer's DWEEB is on my actual home bookshelves. 
When Matthew's Cody told me his book was Powerless, I proved the importance of a good book cover by affirming that it was indeed the book with the blue cover and the superhero flying down. From there we starting talking about Book Expo America itself, where I had found the book promotion on the floor focused strongly on dark and dystopian titles making it difficult to even locate lighter middle-grade books. I'd say that this is the grain of truth in that Wall Street Journal article BUT this was a week before it hit the Internet, so we get full credit for our subsequent discussion.
In talking about this trend with these two middle-grade authors, I come to find out that both of them had new titles that fit the current tone. From there we had a fascinating conversation, that I simply had to replicate as best as possible for the Summer Blog Blast Tour. Readers here will miss a bit more of the line-by-line conversation of our bar room discussion, but will also be fortunate to be not be shouting said conversation over a throbbing bass line.
Both of you moved to darker novels in middle-grade from your debuts. How did that transition happen for you?
MC: This may sound odd, but when I was looking at doing a follow-up to Powerless, I went darker because I had a desire to do something actually more traditional. I say that may sound odd because when most people think of middle grade - or children's novels as they were once called - they don't think about them as dark, but the long history of children's literature is filled with some very dark stuff, indeed. The unsanitized Grimm's Fairy tales, Alice in Wonderland. These stories are downright creepy in places.
AS: When I was writing The Only Ones, I just had an urge to create something slightly more mature. I wanted to take innocent characters and drop a monumental problem in their laps. The apocalypse! The stewardship of the earth! Because when I was 12 or 13, just inching past my innocent but curious phase
By: Pam Coughlan,
on 7/13/2011
Blog: MotherReader (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: SBBT, KidLitCon 2011, Add a tag
Community is the word of week. Certainly, it's a concept that's always there, but the talk around Google+ put the it right out front. Who's in your circle? And which circle? And why? Questions that can make a person think. That's probably a good thing.
It's also the week of the Summer Blog Blast Tour, where bloggers interview an array of authors and illustrators just because we can. I've missed the first two days with travel back home and recovering from said travel, but I can share the schedule for today:
Sarah Stevenson at Chasing RayOver the week you'll find the updated links, full schedule, and teaser quotes at Chasing Ray. I'll be jumping in on Friday with my interview with middle-grade authors Matthew Cody and Aaron Starmer, so come on back now y'hear.
Emily Howse at Bildungsroman
Ashley Hope-Perez at The Happy Nappy Bookseller
Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich at Hip Writer Mama
In my day of Getting Things Done Again, I signed up for the fifth annual KidLitCon in Seattle. There was never a question of going, just of making the tiny effort to fill out the form. For folks who need a little incentive, let me point out the keynote speaker, Scott Westerfeld. Like, wow!
KidLitCon Seattle brings me back to the word of the week. Community. Because that's what this conference is all about. I've been to all of four of them, hosted one in DC, and can testify that it is such an amazing experience to connect in person with your online community. The sessions inspire your blogging, but the connections infuse your spirit. I wouldn't miss either, and neither should you.
Register for KidLitCon now and look forward to this feeling expressed in the perfect words of Amy Ludwig VanDerwater, “Ah… there was a whole VELVETEEN RABBIT feel to the whole kidlitcon day. Everyone is real at last!"
By: Betsy Bird,
on 7/11/2011
Blog: A Fuse #8 Production (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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Maybe half a year ago I mentioned that Ms. Lucy Knisley had created a cartoon poster for the first four Harry Potter books. Now with the final Potter movie coming out, the posters are at long last complete. They follow the plots of the books, not the films, but the look of the characters can be amusingly cinematic at times. And for the record, if I were a tattoo-minded dame, I would adore getting this image of Luna Lovegood and her pop.
But that’s not really my top news story of the day. How could it be? No the top news story is that it is once again time for the Summer Blog Blast Tour. Twice a year a cadre of bloggers for child and teen books gather together to interview some of the luminaries in the field. Chasing Ray has the round-up, so seek ‘em out and read ‘em up. I know I will.
When I lived in London for a time (it was like a little Intro to New York) I would periodically buy the newest issue of Time Out London and find interesting places to visit. One day the mag highlighted a toy museum. It was called The Museum of Childhood and it was fascinating. I was too intimidated to take any pictures, though, so I sort of forgot that I even went. Years have passed and I see that author/illustrator David Lucas has also been to that same museum and he has written about it in the post What do TOYS Think of Us? Stick around for the moment when he starts talking about panpsychism. Looking at all those ragamuffin bits of much loved cloth and felt reminds me of my library’s own original Winnie-the-Pooh. He is, after all, of the British persuasion.
- Birthday party themes for kids abound. My heart, however, belongs to any kid who opts for the theme of “librarian”. There’s even a section discussing what such a party consisted of. Just in case you need some pointers. Big thanks to Jan Godown Annino for the link!
- Yay, Sunday Brunch! Over at Collecting Children’s Books my partner in writing crime (we’re doing a Candlewick book with Jules from 7-Imp) has a delightful post that is well worth your time. My favorite parts include the childhood of a future Brat Packer, a reason why Erin E. Moulton’s Flutter is unique, and a vote for “The Year’s Creepiest YA Novel.” Hooked yet?
- Marci, this is for you. Remember how we were trying to figure out how one would go about creating Quidditch croquet? Well . . .
- And since thi
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By: Little Willow,
on 7/11/2011
Blog: readergirlz (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: shirley vernick, the blood lie, interviews, Little Willow, summer blog blast tour, sbbt, Add a tag
If you love writing, reading, and reading interviews with writers, make sure to follow the Summer Blog Blast Tour (SBBT) all week long. Organized by Colleen of the blog Chasing Ray, the SBBT is now in its fifth year of fun. Click here for the full schedule.
Today, I posted my interview with author Shirley Vernick at my blog, Bildungsroman. Here's a sneak peek:
In 1928, a little girl from New York disappeared, and a young Jewish boy was thought to be her murderer - but he was truly innocent. This real-life tragedy inspired Shirley Reva Vernick's debut novel, The Blood Lie, which will be available September 1st. Shirley's relatives were directly victimized by the real event, and she grew up in the town where it happened, yet she didn't know it until she was a college student. In her own words:
Shirley Vernick: I was already in college when I first learned about it. I came home for fall break my sophomore year with an assignment for a sociology class. Students had to identify a local community conflict – past or present – and write a paper about it. I remember thinking, I'm screwed – no juicy controversies ever happen in my dinky little town of Massena, New York. So I asked my dad, who also grew up in Massena, if he had any ideas. That's when he told me, for the first time, about the blood libel that happened in Massena when he was a high school senior. It was just before Yom Kippur, and a little Christian girl disappeared while playing in the woods near her house. The next thing you know, the local Jews – including my dad's family – were being accused of kidnapping and murdering that little girl and baking her blood in their "holiday foods." I couldn't believe what I was hearing. In America? In the 20th century?
To read the full interview, please visit Bildungsroman!
By: Trisha, Gayle, and Jolene,
on 7/11/2011
Blog: The YA YA YAs (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Events, SBBT, Add a tag
Today’s author interviews are:
Tara Altebrando at Chasing Ray
Shirley Vernick at Bildungsroman
Jack Ferraiolo at The Happy Nappy Bookseller
Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen at Writing & Ruminating
And here’s the schedule for the rest of the week.
Tuesday
Sean Beaudoin at Chasing Ray
Neesha Meminger at The Happy Nappy Bookseller
Rachel Karns at Bildungsroman
Wednesday
Sarah Stevenson at Chasing Ray
Emily Howse at Bildungsroman
Ashley Hope-Perez at The Happy Nappy Bookseller
Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich at Hip Writer Mama
Thursday
Tessa Gratton at Writing & Ruminating
Micol Ostow at A Chair, A Fireplace & A Tea Cozy
Maria Padian at Bildungsroman
Genevieve Cote at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast
Friday
Genevieve Valentine at Shaken & Stirred
Stacy Whitman at The Happy Nappy Bookseller
Alyssa B. Sheinmel at A Chair, A Fireplace & A Tea Cozy
Matthew Cody and Aaron Starmer at Mother Reader
Filed under: Events
Posted on 7/10/2011
Blog: Little Willow - Bildungsroman (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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In 1928, a little girl from New York disappeared, and a young Jewish boy was thought to be her murderer - but he was truly innocent. This real-life tragedy inspired Shirley Reva Vernick's debut novel, The Blood Lie, which will be available September 1st. Shirley's relatives were directly victimized by the real event, and she grew up in the town where it happened, yet she didn't know it until she was a college student. In her own words:
Shirley Vernick: I was already in college when I first learned about it. I came home for fall break my sophomore year with an assignment for a sociology class. Students had to identify a local community conflict – past or present – and write a paper about it. I remember thinking, I'm screwed – no juicy controversies ever happen in my dinky little town of Massena, New York. So I asked my dad, who also grew up in Massena, if he had any ideas. That's when he told me, for the first time, about the blood libel that happened in Massena when he was a high school senior. It was just before Yom Kippur, and a little Christian girl disappeared while playing in the woods near her house. The next thing you know, the local Jews – including my dad's family – were being accused of kidnapping and murdering that little girl and baking her blood in their "holiday foods." I couldn't believe what I was hearing. In America? In the 20th century?
Little Willow: Oh my goodness. Why did they involve your father's family?
Shirley Vernick: My father's family owned a popular clothing store in town. A state trooper showed up at my father's house late the night of the disappearance and made my grandfather open up the store. The trooper then searched the store to see if the Jews had stashed the little girl's corpse there.
Little Willow: That makes me shudder, to say the least. When (and why) did you decide to write The Blood Lie?
Shirley Vernick: I knew I wanted to write something more than a term paper the minute I learned about the Massena blood libel. I always wanted to be a writer, and this was something that not only spoke to me, but grabbed me by the throat and screamed at me.
Little Willow: As it's a work of fiction inspired by real-life events, how far did you deviate from the facts? How did you distinguish between reality and fiction?
Shirley Vernick: Since there is little or no clear documentation of the details of this blood libel, and since different people remembered it differently, I had to go beyond the basic facts. So I did my best to adhere to the essence of the real event, and then I added details, including personalities and subplots. I also changed names.
Little Willow: The Blood Lie is your debut novel. Do you have other novels in the works?
Shirley Vernick: I do have another YA novel (a supernatural thriller) plus a middle-grade novel in the works. Both are strictly fictional and are a blast to work on.
Little Willow: Congratulations on your career as a journalist. Your articles have been published in Ladies' Home Journal, Cosmopolitan, and Good Housekeeping, as well as newspapers and college publications. Do you work regularly for any of these publications?</b>
Shirley Vernick: I used to work regularly on-assignment for several Harvard University publications and for some newspapers, but mostly I like to come up with a story idea and then pitch whatever publication I think matches my concept. Since I've started writing books, I do fewer freelance articles, but I still enjoy it.
Little Willow: Which piece has been the most fun to research and write?
Shirley Vernick:Hmm, that's a tough one – because I've been lucky enough to work on so many fun pieces. Okay, the most fun was probably the article I wrote for Cosmo on the mind-bod
Posted on 7/10/2011
Blog: Little Willow - Bildungsroman (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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It's that time of year again - Time for the Summer Blog Blast Tour! Created by Colleen from Chasing Ray in 2007, the Summer Blog Blast Tour (SBBT) is a series of author interviews posted at various blogs over the course of a week. The SBBT led to the Winter Blog Blast Tour, which happens roughly six months later with a different bunch of authors and bloggers.
This week, I'll be posting all-new interviews with Shirley Vernick (The Blood Lie), Rachel Karns (Gray), Emily Howse (Zitface), and Maria Padian (Jersey Tomatoes are the Best) here at Bildungsroman.
Here's the complete SBBT 2011 schedule:
Monday, July 11th
Tara Altebrando at Chasing Ray
Shirley Vernick at Bildungsroman
Jack Ferraiolo at The Happy Nappy Bookseller
Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen at Writing & Ruminating
Tuesday, July 12th
Sean Beaudoin at Chasing Ray
Neesha Meminger at The Happy Nappy Bookseller
Rachel Karns at Bildungsroman
Wednesday, July 13th
Sarah Stevenson at Chasing Ray
Emily Howse at Bildungsroman
Ashley Hope-Perez at The Happy Nappy Bookseller
Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich at Hip Writer Mama
Thursday, July 14th
Tessa Gratton at Writing & Ruminating
Micol Ostow at A Chair, A Fireplace & A Tea Cozy
Maria Padian at Bildungsroman
Genevieve Cote at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast
Friday, July 15th
Genevieve Valentine at Shaken & Stirred
Stacy Whitman at The Happy Nappy Bookseller
Alyssa B. Sheinmel at A Chair, A Fireplace & A Tea Cozy
Matthew Cody and Aaron Starmer at Mother Reader
Blog: HipWriterMama (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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Hope you've all been enjoying the SBBT interviews this week. Remember, to stop by Chasing Ray's Master Schedule for this week's links to author interviews and thoughtful quotes!
a brother-sister duo with enormous powers to channel the hearts of girls and create a special graphic novel series...
My girls LOVE the BABYMOUSE series. The girls in their school love the BABYMOUSE series. It's one the first books that girls try to grab during school library time, and sometimes, the kids try to bargain.
Blog: HipWriterMama (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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Stop by Chasing Ray's Master Schedule for today's links to author interviews and thoughtful quotes! I'll post the linkage later this evening.
Please stop by tomorrow, I have a special surprise interview!
Enjoy your day.
By: Kelly Fineman,
on 5/19/2010
Blog: Writing and Ruminating (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: interviews, sbbt, mantchev, Add a tag
1. Which came first, the Théâtre Illuminata or Beatrice Shakespeare Smith?
Bertie traipsed in first... it all started with her full name, and the line about the fairies flying around her on wires. I think I was somewhere in the vicinity of my dining room table at the time, working on a (different) short story project.
2. Your first novel, Eyes Like Stars, is one of those that seems a bit difficult to assign to a particular box. Do you consider it fantasy? steampunk? a mystery? adventure? romance? Does it matter that it can't be easily labeled? Was your mixture of all those things and more (including theatre references in general and Shakespeare in particular) a goal when you started, or something that evolved as you went along?
Looking back at my short fiction, I think ELS continues with my signature mixture of fantasy, magic realism, whimsy and--always--elaborate costuming. Certainly there are elements of a mystery (the identity of Bertie's mother) and romance (the love triangle between Bertie and the boys) but I never set out to make conscious decisions about such things. Maybe I should... it might save me some rewriting later on.
As for the theater and Shakespeare angle, I think when I sat down to write My First Novel, I knew in the back of my mind that the adage about writing what you know would hold particularly true when jumping from short to long fiction. An incredible amount of research goes into any novel... the more I knew without resorting to Google on that first book, the better!
3. So, as a follow-up to that answer, tell me a bit about your own theatre background.
I started doing community theater when I was seven... we got a call from one of the other parents at my school, who directed the local musicals, asking my mom if she'd bring me down to the theater to audition for South Pacific. She left a half-crimped pie crust on the kitchen counter to take me (hence the acknowledgment in ELS!)
After that, I did shows like Peter Pan and Beauty & The Beast, performed in The Nutcracker with my ballet class, and started auditioning for non-musicals with the local playhouse. I started writing scripts for school plays in the fourth grade, directed and produced one of my full-length scripts when I was sixteen, then got a scholarship to study Drama at the University of CA, Irvine.
During college, I spent a lot of time focused on the technical aspects of the productions (which is what happens when nerves get the best of you and you don't get cast in shows!) and my senior year I started writing plays again. I did one more community theater production after we moved to Wash
Blog: HipWriterMama (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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Welcome to Day 3 of the SBBT! Here are your links (Thank you Tanita Davis!) to today's interviews...Enjoy!
- Michael Trinklein @ Chasing Ray
- Nick Burd @ Fuse Number 8
- Tom Siddell @ Finding Wonderland
- Sarah Darer Littman @ A Chair, A Fireplace & A Tea Cozy
- Jessica Leader @ Shaken & Stirred
By: Kelly Fineman,
on 5/18/2010
Blog: Writing and Ruminating (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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I hope you all got a chance to read my interview with Jennifer Hubbard (aka 
By: Pam Coughlan,
on 5/18/2010
Blog: MotherReader (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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It's time once again for the Summer Blog Blast Tour, where interviews abound. Or something like that. I couldn't participate this time around, but am happy to point you to the Master Schedule for the week, and just for kicks, to point out today's line-up.
- Mary Jane Beaufrand at The Ya, Ya, Yas
- Rita Williams-Garcia at Fuse Number 8
- Jennifer Hubbard at Writing & Ruminating
- Charise Mericle Harper at Shelf Elf
- Holly Schindler at Little Willow
Posted on 5/18/2010
Blog: Little Willow - Bildungsroman (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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Earlier this year, I was given the opportunity to interview Holly Schindler about her debut novel, A Blue So Dark. The final, edited version of interview was then included in the back of the book as a bonus feature. Now, it's time to give you blog readers a bonus: Here is the full, unedited version of the interview. Let's lead in with a little backstory:
A Blue So Dark studies the life of a girl who, as she turns from 15 to 16, watches her once lively mother lose her grasp on reality as she is overwhelmed by schizophrenia. Recently published by Flux, this is Holly Schindler's debut novel.
Little Willow: What prompted you to write about schizophrenia? How much research did you do into the condition before or while writing the book?
Holly Schindler: I hate math. I'm talking serious hatred. And science. Computers. Any class that involved definite right or wrong answers was not my favorite, either in high school or college. I preferred the courses that required more than just memorization and multiple-choice tests: Art. Literature. Creative writing. And I've always loved music to the point of obsession. (I didn't take any music classes in school - was never in choir or band - but I did race out of elementary school every Monday afternoon to get to my weekly piano lesson, and I spent Saturdays as a teenager driving all the way across town so that I could take guitar lessons from a member of the Ozark Mountain Daredevils.) Basically, if it involved creativity, I was there.
I've also always been interested in what makes a person creative. Why one person can write an entire volume of poetry while another just stares at the blue lines on a blank piece of notebook paper, unable to come up with a single rhyme. My interest in creativity really exploded in grad school...I taught a few courses while working on my master's, and I was amazed by the way some of my students could go on for half a class period about the meaning in a poem I'd bring in for discussion, while others would just read the literal surface-meaning, not probing any deeper, not really making any connections or seeing metaphors. But why is that? Why do some people look at everything literally, while others constantly see something more?
A Blue So Dark isn't autobiographical in that I didn't grow up with a mentally ill mother. But while I don't have any personal experience with schizophrenia, I didn't have to probe very deep into the subject of creativity to find out that many of our "great" artists - playwrights, poets, novelists, painters, sculptors, musicians - were in some way affected by mental illness - schizophrenia as well as depression or bipolar disorder...The idea of the "mad genius" is so pervasive, there's even a Wikipedia entry for "Creativity and Mental Illness!"
With this novel, I got a chance to explore the idea that creative thought and mental illness are linked. And, yes, I did have to do some research into schizophrenia - symptoms, treatment, etc. But I was writing fiction - so of course, my characters and their experiences had to drive the book, not descriptions of the condition. I internalized everything I read, then put it all away. When I drafted (and revised) the novel, I focused on character development, plot, the mother-daughter relationship between Aura and Grace.
In fact, as I tightened up the novel, and Aura became a stronger, more fully fleshed out character, I actually felt like schizophrenia fell somewhat into the background. I know that probably sounds a little absurd for anyone who's just read the novel. But the first few drafts were almost completely about Aura and her mother. I found out that for Aura to be a real person, she had to be more than just an artist. More than just a girl struggling with her family's history with mental illness. She also had to have a best friend, a crush, a life at school...
But getting a little overwhelmed by background information is probably a danger
By: Kelly Fineman,
on 5/17/2010
Blog: Writing and Ruminating (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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Since then, Jenn has completed her novel, landed an agent, gotten a book deal and seen her first novel released. In the words of the Grateful Dead, "what a long, strange trip it's been."
1. Your debut novel, The Secret Year, came out a few months ago. What has surprised you most about being a published author?
That strangers really do read and talk about one’s book. I know that sounds incredibly naive, but I published short stories for years, and it’s a very different experience. I’ve only ever seen one review of a short story of mine. But novels generate much more conversation, for whatever reason—which is wonderful and strange at the same time!
2. The Secret Year features a teen male narrator. Did you always conceive the book as being written from Colten's point of view?
Yes, always. His voice came to me rather insistently, and provided the engine to move this story forward.
3. The voice sounds like an authentic teen male voice. Given that you are not now, nor have ever been (to my knowledge) a teen boy, how did you go about putting yourself into his shoes?
Whatever I know about male voices comes from living with guys, working with them, being friends with them, overhearing their conversations in school halls and on trains and in restaurants, and from reading their work. And still, I always think of my characters as people first.
4. As anyone who has read your blog knows, you put a great deal of thought into your writing. How conscious are you of theme when you write? Is that something that you start with, or something that evolves throughout the writing and revision process?
At first, I just write. As I go, I have an idea or two that I’m trying to develop: in this case, “secrecy” was uppermost. Why do people choose secrecy, when they do? What do they get from it? Why is it so appealing? What are the consequences of keeping secrets? Of revealing them?
After the first draft, I figure out what the theme is and sculpt the later revisions to emphasize that theme. In later drafts, I also consciously choose language or symbolism that reflects that theme. Although secrecy stayed a central focus of The Secret Year, loss and grief were important topics also, as well as the issue of class differences, and the fact that people often become emotionally involved with one another even when they’re trying not to.
5. You've written (and sold) short stories for the adult market, but your longer fiction is for the young adult market. Have you (or would you) write short stories for the YA market, or, alternatively, novels for the adult market? Why or why not?
To me, the main difference between the forms is that a short story revolves around one incident or idea or concept, while a novel requires subplots and a wider scope. I have written YA short stories, although there hasn’t been a huge market. However, there’s Hunger Mountain now, and there are always anthologies. I would love to do more short fiction. I think it’s fascinating that short stories haven’t been more commercially successful in this era. We keep hearing how people have short attention spans
By: Trisha, Gayle, and Jolene,
on 5/17/2010
Blog: The YA YA YAs (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Events, SBBT, Add a tag
Can you believe this is the fourth SBBT?! Thanks to Colleen for creating it, inviting us to participate, and the other bloggers involved for all the fabulous interviews.
Today, there are five interviews:
Kate Milford at Chasing Ray
Mac Barnett at A Fuse #8 Production
Hazardous Players at Finding Wonderland
Malinda Lo at Shelf Elf
Barbara Dee at Little Willow
And come back tomorrow for my interview with Mary Jane Beaufrand.
Posted on 5/16/2010
Blog: Little Willow - Bildungsroman (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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Barbara Dee's novels for middle school readers will delight kids and parents alike. Her characters have had to deal with family troubles, dishonest friends, big school projects, and, yes, even iguanas. With thanks to Liesa Abrams for introducing us, I welcome you now to my exclusive interview with Barbara Dee.
Your newest book, This Is Me From Now On, details the friendship between two middle school girls, Evie and Francesca. Which girl is more like the pre-teen Barbara?
I was definitely an Evie - a good girl who was feeling suffocated by my best friends. So around seventh grade I started hanging out with a much wilder girl - not exactly a Francesca-type, but someone who jolted me out of my comfort zone and kept me laughing. We got ourselves into some mischief, but looking back, I feel really lucky that I met her!
In your first book, Just Another Day in My Insanely Real Life, Cassie, a middle child, has to deal with the changes in her family and her house after her father moves out. What inspired Cassie's journal entries?
For Cassie's fantasy-inspired journal entries, I read people like Tamora Pierce and Nancy Springer. (Not that Cassie writes like them, but they're her idols.) For her joke entries, I thought about how when I was a kid, I was convinced that my English teacher wasn't actually reading my essays. So one time I stuck the words "scrambled eggs" right in the middle of a long paragraph, just as a test. And apparently I was all wrong about this guy, because when he handed back my paper it had "SCRAMBLED EGGS? WHAT???" written in the margin. In angry red ink.
Yikes! Your second novel, Solving Zoe, finds the title character solving some cool codes with an unlikely new friend. Are you a codebreaker?
Not at all! Seriously, I'm hopeless at solving codes. For SOLVING ZOE I had to do research that took me in some strange directions - with codes and also with lizards. Eww! But I ended up smitten with that cute iguana.
Iguanas are cute. Did you ever attend a private school like Zoe's?
When I was a kid I went to big, traditional public schools in Brooklyn. In a way Zoe's school is what kids dream about. No grades or red pens or report cards--what kid wouldn't want that? But I'm not sure I'd like to go there myself. Too much pressure to be special, I think.
All three of your books to date have been set in middle school and published by Aladdin MiX, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. How did you make the connection with MiX? Do you have forthcoming titles coming out from MiX?
My first two books were originally published as McElderry/Simon & Schuster hardcovers, which was a privilege. I was thrilled when my first book, JUST ANOTHER DAY IN MY INSANELY REAL LIFE, was chosen to be one of the six Aladdin MIX launch titles, and then to find out that MIX would also be publishing the paperback edition of SOLVING ZOE (which just came out this month). So I was delighted that my third book, THIS IS ME FROM NOW ON, would originate with MIX and that I'd be working from the start with my editor, Liesa Abrams. This imprint couldn't be a better fit for me, because it focuses on tween readers. And I love Liesa! She totally connects with my writing -- not just THIS IS ME, but also my next book, TRAUMA QUEEN, which will be out Spring 2011.
Liesa rocks! At the S&S website, you were asked to sum up your life in 8 words. You said: "Write. Read. Revise. Play with cat. Delete. Write." Does the cat ever help you write or delete? Do your kids help with outlines or revisions?
Actually, the cat PREVENTS me from writing or deleting, because she forces me to play with her! My kids, on the other hand, help when I need some kid-slang. And they're very critical, so if they laugh at something, I know it's working.
What inspires you to write middle school stories?
Two things. First, my strong memories of how I felt in middle school.
Posted on 5/16/2010
Blog: Little Willow - Bildungsroman (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: interviews, books, blog tour, sbbt, Add a tag
For the past three years, Colleen from Chasing Ray has organized series upon series of author interviews. These blog tours, hosted and posted at various blogs, have been dubbed the Summer Blog Blast Tour (SBBT for short) and Winter Blog Blast Tour (aka WBBT). Each event is one week long and involves a multitude of authors, bloggers, and readers.
Here is the lineup for the 2010 SBBT.
Monday, May 17th
Kate Milford at Chasing Ray
Mac Barnett at Fuse Number 8
Hazardous Players at Finding Wonderland
Malinda Lo at Shelf Elf
Barbara Dee at Bildungsroman
Tuesday, May 18th
Mary Jane Beaufrand at The YA YA YAs
Rita Williams-Garcia at Fuse Number 8
Jennifer Hubbard at Writing & Ruminating
Charise Mericle Harper at Shelf Elf
Holly Schindler at Bildungsroman
Wednesday, May 19th
Michael Trinklein at Chasing Ray
Nick Burd at Fuse Number 8
Sarah Darer Littman at A Chair, A Fireplace & A Tea Cozy
Tom Siddell at Finding Wonderland
Paolo Bacigalupi at Shaken & Stirred
Thursday, May 20th
Matthew Reinhart at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast
Jenny Boylan at Fuse Number 8
Lisa Mantchev at Writing & Ruminating
Jess Leader at Shaken & Stirred
Donna Freitas at Bildungsroman
Friday, May 21st
Julia Hoban at Chasing Ray
Stacy Kramer at A Chair, A Fireplace & A Tea Cozy
Nancy Bo Flood at Finding Wonderland
Tara Kelly at Shaken & Stirred
Sarah Kuhn at Bildungsroman
View all Bildungsroman posts tagged as SBBT.
View all Bildungsroman posts tagged as WBBT.
Check out the SBBT 2009 archive.
Check out the SBBT 2008 archive.
Check out the SBBT 2007 archive.
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By: Lizzy Burns,
on 5/16/2010
Blog: A Chair, A Fireplace and A Tea Cozy (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: summer blog blast tour, sbbt, interviews, Add a tag
Ready, Steady, Go!
And get prepared for the Summer Blag Blast Tour, May 2010 Edition. Woo to the hoo!
Why, what is a Blog Blast Tour?
It is the brainchild of Colleen Mondor at Chasing Ray. A group of bloggers interview a bunch of authors; all organized and run by the bloggers, not by publicists or publishers. It's not to promote one book or one author; it's to promote books, authors, and blogging.
Here is the full week schedule, via Chasing Ray. Daily, Colleen will post that day's schedule, pulling a quote from each interview to give a teaser of what the full interview is.
Stops here at Tea Cozy are bolded.
Monday, May 17
Kate Milford at Chasing Ray
Mac Barnett at Fuse Number 8
Hazardous Players at Finding Wonderland
Malinda Lo at Shelf Elf
Barbara Dee at Little Willow
Tuesday, May 18
Mary Jane Beaufrand at The Ya, Ya, Yas
Rita Williams-Garcia at Fuse Number 8
Jennifer Hubbard at Writing & Ruminating
Charise Mericle Harper at Shelf Elf
Holly Schindler at Little Willow
Wednesday, May 19
Michael Trinklein at Chasing Ray
Nick Burd at Fuse Number 8
Sarah Darer Littman at A Chair, A Fireplace & A Tea Cozy
Tom Siddell at Finding Wonderland
Paolo Bacigalupi at Shaken & Stirred
Thursday, May 20
Matthew Reinhart at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast
Jenny Boylan at Fuse Number 8
Lisa Mantchev at Writing & Ruminating
Jess Leader at Shaken & Stirred
Donna Freitas at Little Willow
Friday May 21
Julia Hoban at Chasing Ray
Stacy Kramer at A Chair, A Fireplace & A Tea Cozy
Nancy Bo Flood at Finding Wonderland
Tara Kelly at Shaken & Stirred
Sarah Kuhn at Little Willow
I borrowed the above image from Fuse 8 and Finding Wonderland.
Amazon Affiliate. If you click from here to Amazon and buy something, I receive a percentage of the purchase price.
© Elizabeth Burns of A Chair, A Fireplace & A Tea Cozy
Posted on 5/24/2009
Blog: Little Willow - Bildungsroman (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: interviews, books, blog tour, sbbt, Add a tag
For the past two years, Colleen from Chasing Ray has organized series upon series of author interviews. These blog tours, hosted and posted at various blogs, have been dubbed the Summer Blog Blast Tour (SBBT for short) and Winter Blog Blast Tour (aka WBBT). Each event is one week long and involves a multitude of authors, bloggers, and readers.
Here is the full archive for the 2009 SBBT.
Monday, May 18th
Andrew Mueller at Chasing Ray
Kekla Magoon at Fuse #8
Carrie Jones at Writing & Ruminating
Amber Benson at Bildungsroman
Greg van Eekhout at Shaken & Stirred
Tuesday, May 19th
Maya Ganesan at Miss Erin
Amber Benson at lectitans
Carolyn Hennesy at Bildungsroman
Jo Knowles at Hip Writer Mama
Sherri Winston at Finding Wonderland
Wednesday, May 20th
Barbara O'Connor at MotherReader
James Kennedy at Fuse #8
Maggie Stiefvater at Writing & Ruminating
Rosemary Clement-Moore at Bildungsroman
Jo Knowles at lectitans
Melissa Wyatt at Chasing Ray
Thursday, May 21st
Siobhan Vivian at Miss Erin
Alma Alexander at Finding Wonderland
Laurel Snyder at Shaken & Stirred
Cindy Pon at The YA YA YAs
Thalia Chaltas at Bildungsroman
Friday, May 22nd
Jenny Davidson at Chasing Ray
Rebecca Stead at Fuse #8
Ryan Mecum at Writing and Ruminating
Lauren Myracle at Bildungsroman
Kristin Cashore at HipWriterMama
Rachel Caine at The YA YA YAs
Another Colleen-led project is the group blog GuysLitWire. Learn more about the GuysLitWire Book Fair for Boys.
View all Bildungsroman posts tagged as SBBT.
View all Bildungsroman posts tagged as WBBT.
Check out the SBBT 2008 archive.
Check out the SBBT 2007 archive.
Posted on 5/22/2009
Blog: Little Willow - Bildungsroman (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: sbbt, interviews, books, blog tour, Add a tag
Lauren Myracle cracks me up. Considering the title of her newest book, Peace, Love, & Baby Ducks, perhaps I should say she quacks me up. After finally meeting face-to-face last year, she promptly dubbed me "Li'l Dub." (Note: She is the only person permitted to call me this.) We get along famously - or at least I'd like to think so! - and, due to her writing versatility, I recommend her vast variety of books to various audiences and ages.
Rub a dub dub, three ducks in a tub - rather, two ducks, many books, and a whole lot of questions.
You've said that it took a good ten years from the time you really focused on writing to the time your first novel was published.
Yes, but not by choice. Just sayin'...
What do you know now about the publishing industry that you wish you knew then?
That editors really *are* just people. That they don't always wear black, a la hip and intimidating New Yorkers, but that some of them should break out the pastels more than they do. That wishing and hoping won't make it so, but it's not a bad strategy in terms of keeping yourself focused. That yes, books are products (blech, hate "products"!), but that the fab editors -- meaning the ones I'm lucky enough to work with -- do what they do because books are made not for money, but for love.
What do you know now about your own writing style that you wish you knew then?
That "parents" are easier to write once you become one. That setting still sucks. That my brain has gotten more nimble, which I say that not to be braggy, but as a way of rejoicing in the fact that using the same circuits again and again and firing the same set of neurons again and again does strengthen all of those passage ways. I mean, that's so cool, right? That you do something and do it and do it some more...and you do get better? I guess what I'm saying is that writing, at least for me, is NOT about the gift from the sky of plain raw talent. It's about work. And oddly, that makes me so happy! It's lovely to be a human and to have the potential to GET BETTER at whatever it is you do, that's all.
You have written for various audiences and genres, ranging from elementary and middle school readers to teens, from realistic fiction to horror, from story stories to collaborative novels. What, if anything, do you think all of your stories have in common?
I know exactly what they have in common: a focus on friendship. I didn't set out to have friendship be my thing, but whaddaya know? It is.
Have you experienced any resistance to publication or attempts at censorship when you've dared to have girls kiss girls (Kissing Kate) or talk frankly about their bodies and lives (the Winnie series for kids, the TTYL series for teens) or commit horrible acts (Bliss)?
"Commit horrible acts." Oh, you slay me. (Heh heh heh, little jokey there, eh? You slay me?) But as for resistance and censorship, that would be a big fat (and often slitty-eyed) YES. In 2007, my ttyl series ranked #7 on the American Library Association's top 10 list of most frequently challenged books. This past year, they jumped to #3. Uh...wh-hoo? I cannot think of one single book I've written that hasn't made some grown-up or other upset/uncomfortable/afraid. It kind of sucks, but I'm not going to let that resistance push me down. The thing is? Really? The characters in my books (well, not counting the ones that, ya know, commit horrible acts) have strong moral compasses; it's just that the situations they put themselves in are "real" and un-prettied-up by fake adult perspective. The girls I write about make bad decisions sometimes, sure, but for the most part, they learn from them.
GO YOU! Will there be any more TTYL or Winnie books in the future?
Why, yes! How lovely of you to ask! :) BFF comes out in September; it's a new ttyl book. FOURTEEN comes out...well, after I finish it, I suppose, and after my editor has her way with it.
I know you have something else up your sleeve...
The first installment of a brand spankin' new series called Luv Ya Bunches comes out in October. I am so excited! It's an instant messaging book (ish), but more for the tween crowd and less for the teen crowd. Like, instead of "should I have sex" drama, there's bobble-head turtle drama. In fact, quite dramatic bobble-head turtle drama...
Is it a mock turtle? Sorry, Alice in Wonderland reference. I had to make it! From turtles to alligators, from bunches of love to stacks of pancakes: How to Be Bad was a collaborative effort with E. Lockhart and Sarah Mlynowski, one comprehensive novel told from three different viewpoints, while Let It Snow with Maureen Johnson and John Green was a collection of three individual stories which were loosely connected. Would you be interested in writing in either format and/or as a member of a trio again?
If the same threesomes were proposed? HECK yeah. Me lub threesomes, as long as they involve E. and Sarah and Maureen and John. Ooo, maybe we should write a...fivesome? A fivesome! John and Maureen and I have tried to persuade our editor to let us write The Vampire Panties of Doom; I reckon E. and Sarah would have much to contribute to such a tale, don't you? It. Would. Be. EPIC!!!!!
Make it six and count me in! Are your cats literate enough to read your books?
Hahahahaha. *does a rapidfire switch to a straight and sober expression* No. I wish. They aren't even literate enough to clean out their litter box.
Have (or will, when they are old enough) your kids read any of your books?
My ten-year-old has read them all, that good boy! My eight-year-old loves the Winnie books and listens to them as audiobooks every night for twenty minutes. "Twenty Winnie," he calls it. And my four-year-old likes looking at the covers. She is enthralled by the Luv Ya Bunches girls, who are adorable (and stylish!).
Which, if any, of your stories were inspired by your own kids, your siblings, or your childhood?
Well, Bliss? That one about the girls who commit horrible acts? Let's just say...hrm. No, far better to zip our lips, methinks...
Describe Peace, Love, & Baby Ducks, your brand-spankin' new book, solely in song titles. I'm kidding! (But if you can, do! I dare you!)
Tell ya what, smartie pants. I'll give the song titles -- YOU supply the artists! Ready? On three...two...one...
"Sunshine and Summertime"
"Midnight Train to Georgia"
"You're All Grown Up Now"
"Trouble"
"Detours"
"The Good Times Are Killing Me"
"Prayer Without Words"
"Good-Bye Little Rock and Roller"
"Such Great Heights"
"Where Is the Love"
"Sleeping Diagonally"
"I'll Stand by You"
"Rubber Duckie"
"Bridge Over Troubled Water"
"Anyway"
"What a Wonderful World"
Hey, that was fun!
I challenge readers - yes, you, out there in cyberspace, reading this interview - to list the artists in the comments below! One random commenter will receive a signed copy of Peace, Love, & Baby Ducks.
Now, Lauren, tell me about the sisters in PLBD.
Well, first there's Carly, who's fifteen, and who is one of those blessed individuals who happens to be right about everything. Okay, not really -- but she does have opinions. Lots of them. And many have to do with her firm belief that ONE SHOULD NOT BE FAKE. She lives in a super wealthy Atlanta neighborhood, see, and attends a ritzy prep school, and to her eye, fakeness abounds...and it's depressing and makes her feel smushed and stifled and just knotted up inside. So she rebels by being different...
...and for most of her life, she's had her fourteen-year-old sister, Anna, cheering her on from the wings. Carly would tell Anna what to believe, and Anna would nod obediently and say, "Whatever you say, big sis." A lot of Carly's philosophy revolves around not being pretty-plastic-perfect, but then over the course of one summer...
...Anna grows boobs. Big boobs. And suddenly she's gorgeous, and the pretty-plastic-perfects start crooning to her, saying, "Come, my precioussss! Slip into this pink Ann Taylor dressss, my preciousssss!"
Dun dun dunnnn.
And it's just HARD -- for both sisters. And they both have to learn to be "Carly" and "Anna," instead of "Carly-and-Anna-who-are-sisters-and-who-must-always-fill-these-time-honored-and-particular-roles-of-big-sis-little-sis."
I feel for them. I do.
If you could have an unlimited amount of peace, love, OR baby ducks, which would you pick and why?
*fluffs hair and dons sparkly blue beauty pageant gown WELL. I would choose unlimited LOVE, of course, because then I could sprinkle it over the world like fairy dust -
Fairy dust! Yay! Sorry. Please continue.
- and peace would naturally follow. Peace for humans and baby ducks...and also llamas and flies and clouds and dirt and just, ya know, EVERYTHING.
If you had a nickel for every time someone mispronounced your last name, how rich would you be, and how would you have invested that money?
Ha. Not that rich, as it takes a lot of nickels to add up to...well...more than a pile of nickels. But I'll invest 'em anyway. I'll...hmmm...ooo, I know! I'll give them to that Three Cups of Tea dude to help him keep building schools in Pakistan. DON'T LAUGH.
In all seriousness, that is a noble cause. Name your ten all-time favorite books.
All right, well, I refuse to over-think. I'm just gonna spew. Here goes:
Ramona the Brave
A Little Princess
To Kill a Mockingbird
Rite of Passage
Catcher in the Rye
Flannery O'Connor's Collected Short Stories
The Great Gilly Hopkins
And guess what? I'm stopping there, because tons of others come to mind, but none of them pack the wallop of yes, forever and ever, amen. And the six above do.
Anything else you care to share?
Nah, I'm good...but what awesome questions!!!! Thanks for having me, toots!
You're welcome, and thank you, mighty Myracle!
Don't forget to take a stab at naming the artists of Lauren's mock playlist in the comments below! One random commenter will receive a signed copy of Peace, Love, & Baby Ducks. What are you waiting for? Comment away!
Visit Lauren's website.
Drop by her blog.
Check out the Peace, Love, & Baby Ducks Ning network.
Read my reviews of Eleven, Twelve, and Thirteen - the Winnie books - by Lauren Myracle.
Read my review of How to Be Bad by Lauren Myracle, E. Lockhart, and Sarah Mlynowski.
Read my interview with Lauren Myracle, E. Lockhart, and Sarah Mlynowski.
Today's Schedule
Jenny Davidson at Chasing Ray
Rebecca Stead at Fuse #8
Ryan Mecum at Writing and Ruminating
Lauren Myracle at Bildungsroman
Kristin Cashore at HipWriterMama
Rachel Caine at The YA YA YAs
Help get books into the hands of teen boys who really need them. Learn more about the GuysLitWire Book Fair for Boys.
Blog: HipWriterMama (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: SBBT, Add a tag
Siobhan Vivian at Miss Erin
Alma Alexander at Finding Wonderland
Laurel Snyder at Shaken & Stirred
Cindy Pon at The Ya Ya Yas
Thalia Chaltas at Bildungsroman
Come back tomorrow--Kristin Cashore will be HERE!!
Also, if you'd like to enter to win 1 of 10 book sets (Lessons from a Dead Girl and an ARC of Jumping off Swings by Jo Knowles), leave a comment OVER HERE on a time you felt carefree. Deadline is next Friday, May 29th.
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What a great discussion, all! And the books look awesome, too. :)
I am loving this double interview. The covers for Cody's and Starmer's upcoming novel are great.
I'm just impressed that you found MEN to interview. Men in children's lit are such a rare breed that we ought to send up flares when we find them.
Also, I'm a little disgusted that I'm so behind in my MG reading. I liked the sound of Powerless a long time ago - really need to pick it up!!
Well done for having a face-to-face convo turn into a SBBT interview!