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©Kathleen Rietz
I believe that any resolution worth beginning on January 1st is worth beginning anytime. We should all resolve for better health, more peace, and a sunny outlook ahead.

Considering hiring an artist's agent in 2009? Check out my column this month in The Prairie Wind, the online newsletter of the SCBWI-IL. Click here.

Also, order yourself a copy of my latest illustrated book for children, The ABCs of Yoga for Kids, written by Teresa Ann Power and produced by Brookes Nohlgren. Click here!

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Read my first attempt at writing for The Prairie Wind, the e-newsletter for the SCBWI-Illinois chapter. I love to draw and paint, but writing was a whole new venture for me! It was actually kind of fun, and I would definitely do it again if asked. The topic and article length were totally up to me. I chose to write about the history of my career as an artist, and why I now blog.

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At the close of a recent interview, an author shared something personal with me about one of her novels. I asked if I could relate the story here at Bildungsroman, and she granted me permission. Here now, in her own words, in italics, is Melissa Lion.

I want to say one more thing, I'm not sure how this will fit in to your story, or if it will at all, but I was in San Diego this weekend and I took my best friend to Mount Soledad. He'd never been there despite growing up in San Diego. It was night and we took the exact route Sam takes with Farouk. It was quiet and late and I was holding my breath. We looked at the cross, at the city below us and I felt the presence of my characters. I felt Sam's heartache and desire for Farouk. I felt so still, listening for them.

We drove back down and I told my friend that this was where they were heading downhill and where I expected the stop sign, there was none. I had gotten it wrong. I told my friend that there was supposed to be a stop sign at the bottom of the hill and that Farouk would run it, that Sam's hand was pressed to the dashboard.

He said, "What happens?"

"The chapter ends," I said.

I'm in the process of saying goodbye to Southern California for good and I'm excited, but sad at the same time. I'm ready to go, but I will miss my characters. I will miss who I was in high school. That girl still lives in San Diego. She's still running after Farouk, after her father, after who she wants to be.

You may wonder why my best friend hasn't read my book. I wonder that too. I wonder why I had to buy him a copy of it two weeks ago. It's a mystery.

How can I follow that? I can't. I can simply share with you my favorite quotes from novels. These lines echo in my mind.

Swollen by Melissa Lion

"You could fill a book with the things you haven't seen." (Farouk)
"Books are already filled with them," I said, "And posters and television shows." (Sam) - Page 130

I counted in fours because if I stopped, the tears in my eyes would spill over. - Page 138

And so I waited in the library and touched the spines of the books I should have read long ago to make myself smart, to keep up with him. - Page 161

I turned the light off and listened in the silence for the voices of people I had loved within these walls. - Page 181

Upstream by Melissa Lion

And here are the things I know: Time will never be what my watch says. Time passes too fast when you just want it to stop, and time passes too slow when all you wish for is a lifetime in a minute. It'll just never be what it really is, hands moving on a clock. - Page 41

"Seriously, it takes a lot to shock me. I lived in San Francisco for nearly ten years. I grew up in L.A. Do you love girls and not boys? I'm cool with that. Did someone hit you? I'll hit him back. Does he love someone else? Well, that girl's a s___ with bad shoes." - Katherine to Martha (Marty), Page 55

She misses someone. Maybe someone in her old life. Someone I'll never know. - Page 77

And there are things I understand without needing to know. There are times in this life when the person you miss most is the person you used to be. - Page 77

I put down my pencil and rub my eyes. I want to believe that if I rub them hard enough, Dottie will disappear and come back in with a different thing to tell me. She will tell me that Sean proposed or that she finally got an A in a class and not what she is about to tell me and make my worst fears come true. - Page 91 Related Booklist: Strong Young Women in Teen Fiction

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To date, Melissa Lion has released two novels, Swollen and Upstream. Each is narrated by a teenage girl with a boyish nickname who is troubled by a recent loss. In Swollen, Samantha (Sam) feels as thought she's a middle girl in everything that she does - middle of the pack during cross-country meets, not the best nor the worst student in school, known but overlooked by many of her classmates. In Upstream, all eyes are on Martha (Marty) as she deals with her boyfriend's death. Lion's novels deal with choices, consequences and circumstances. Though each story features a protagonist who feels weighed down by a secret burden, the books are appropriately serious without being too heavy. Readers will not sink; they will think.

One day earlier this summer, Melissa Lion's ears burned. She contacted me without having the faintest idea that I was planning to feature her novel Swollen during the week of Radar Recommendations. I was so glad to hear from her. I heaped praise upon her, and then we had a delightful chat which I'll share with you all now.

One of my favorite pieces of dialogue in Swollen appears on page 130:

"You could fill a book with the things you haven't seen." (Farouk)
"Books are already filled with them," I said, "And posters and television shows." (Sam)

What is something you've seen in your mind's eye while reading or writing that you've never seen in real life?

I just wrote half a YA novel from the point of view of Sasquatch. I'm not writing the second half because it was roundly voted down by my publisher, my agent, my partner and several friends. It's a bit of what was I thinking?

Between my two books, Upstream has far more from my imagination. I've never been to the bush, I've never shot a gun, never cut down my own Christmas tree.

Swollen has subtle changes. The high school is based on my high school, complete with windowless classrooms and no lighted football field, but the relationship between Sam and Farouk is my imagined version of a relationship of mine in high school. That dialog is about Farouk pressing Sam to see how far he can go before she presses back. She doesn't fight him and both are attracted by each other's reactions. She likes that he's bullying her a bit, but she's tough. She knows her heart and her mind. She knows that he's testing her. She still has the power here. The problem comes when she loses her heart to him.

Samantha, the main character in Swollen, is a runner. Are you?

No. Absolutely not. I despise exercise. My partner and I are buying a house right now, and I've been so stressed by it, I exercised the other day. I told my friend this, and she said, "I never thought I'd hear those words leave your mouth." I like to hike and to walk, but if it involves any sort of bouncing, I'm not into it.

I often say that in high school I was too busy ditching class and smoking cigarettes to consider being a cross country runner. But athletes fascinate me. In high school I found it amazing that these people would go to other schools to compete and that they would practice in their spare time.

The idea for Sam came as I was driving in La Jolla one day and saw the La Jolla High cross country team running on the city streets toward the beach. There were winning girls and losing girls and the middle girls. I watched them for a moment and wondered about those middle girls. I was a middle girl and I wanted to tell that story. Those girls looked so serious and focused and I thought, wow, what's that like. And then I began my book.

Chloe, Sam's best friend, has her own stories and secrets. Would you ever write sequels or companions to any of your previous works?

I don't think I could go back to Swollen. That high school and San Diego itself hold too many painful memories. I was really tormented while writing that book. I was revisiting a relationship that was so passionate, so full of love and anger and that had ended years before.

San Diego itself is hard for me to return to even for a visit. I see my hometown and it's so totally changed, in my opinion, for the worst and I don't want to be there even for a day. My partner and I moved from San Francisco back to Southern California. We haven't been here a full year and we've bought a house in Portland to escape.

As for Chloe, she has something bad happening with her brother, she has her cutting, she certainly deserves her own book, but I can't return to that high school. I do love the way she looks. I love complexity of her skin, her face is so pretty, but her back is so scarred.

As far us Upstream, I'm really interested in setting. I want each of my books to be set somewhere. I feel like I've exhausted my knowledge about Alaska. My next book is set in San Francisco, where I lived for ten years. It's good to be back there in my mind.

The theme of loss is also at the heart of your second novel, Upstream. When Marty begins to work at the movie theatre, she finds a confidante in her youthful boss, Katherine. (Not to be confused with Katherine in Swollen.) Katherine is fun yet protective - perhaps a surrogate aunt. Do you have anyone like that?

In my new book, I named someone Katherine. It's my grandmother's name and I absolutely love it, especially spelled with a K.

I need to change the name in my new book. I don't think I can do it three times.

I've always had older female friends. I live in Malibu right now and I've met remarkable women here, all older than I am. Each of them has helped me in my career, with my son and just generally in life. I've always had amazing teachers too. Women who would listen to my boy troubles, parent troubles and always show me kindness and love.

In Upstream, Katherine is who I wanted to be then. I wanted to move to Alaska and live like a native, but I knew I wouldn't ever be able to give up all of my California-ness. As a college professor, there are always young women who I mentor. One in particular has become a good friend and we've been in touch for years. I treasure that relationship and I always take her late night phone calls.

At your website, it says that Upstream has been optioned for a motion picture. Congratulations! Any news on that front?

It's been optioned by an indie company. They've just hired a screenwriter and they think they'll have a screenplay by fall, at which point they'll go to the money people. I can't wait to see Upstream on the big screen. Alaska will look so good.

Sam keeps a great deal of her thoughts to herself, and her first-person narrative is quite powerful. Marty also tells her story in first person. Do you prefer that POV, or have you written/would you write in other forms narrative?

I am currently writing in third person. It's so much fun! My humor comes out in third. I do love first person, present tense. It's got its own set of challenges. The intensity it creates becomes a challenge for the reader and the writer to tolerate. I want my next book to be a bit lighter -- no dead boys -- and third seems to suit this. Though you never know. I might go back to first.

When in the writing process do you tend to title your stories?

Swollen was always Swollen. Upstream was titled so late in the game that I had no saved versions of the text with that title in my computer. My editor and I were searching for a title and she gave it to a marketing person at Random House. He read it can came up with the title. It was perfect. I'd like my next book, however, to have more than one word.

Do you have any advice for aspiring authors?

Read as much as possible and sit down and start writing. Anyone can be a writer, but it takes practice. If you are a writer, support independent bookstores and libraries. These are the places that will carry your book. They will turn other people onto your book. Check the internet for a list of indie bookstores in your neighborhood. Read read read!

Speaking of bookstores, feel free to talk about your bookselling and writing careers.</b>

I'm no longer a bookseller. I'm writing full-time right now. It's an exciting time. I'm working on my YA book and an adult novel. My adult novel is so exciting to me right now. I write pages and pages at a time. I'm just in love with it. I want to stick its picture on my pillow case and kiss it at night. My YA novel is coming slowly, but I spend my days here in Malibu watching it unfold in some ways, so that's very good. It's an odd thing to say because the book is set in San Francisco, but the characters are always performing for me, always trying out new ways of saying and doing things.

What are your ten favorite novels of all time?

Pride and Prejudice -- Jane Austen
Feast of Love -- Charles Baxter
Behind the Scenes of the Museum -- Kate Atkinson
Love Invents Us -- Amy Bloom
Wuthering Heights -- Emily Bronte
Speak -- Laurie Halse Anderson
Weetzie Bat -- Francesca Lia Block
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close -- Jonathan Safran Foer
The Sun Also Rises -- Ernest Hemingway
Frannie and Zooey -- J.D. Salinger
(Basically anything that makes me cry at the end.)

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What happens when you fall into another world? Alice could tell you all about Wonderland. Likewise, May Bird could tell you all about the Ever After.

Book One: May Bird and the Ever After

May Bird is a bright, independent and imaginative young girl whose best friend is her hairless cat, the aptly-named Somber Kitty. One day, she receives a mysterious letter which prompts her to visit the nearby woods. Little does she know that she's about to go on the trip of her life -- among the no-longer-living!

With the help of Pumpkin - a timid ghost who has, without her knowledge, been her long-time guardian - she navigates the strange land. The Ever After is part Beetlejuice, part Oz, and sometimes a little scary for May, but her bravery sees her through.

Somber Kitty also fell into the Ever After, but he was separated from his owner. While May Bird tries to find a way home, Somber Kitty attempts to find her by following her scent. Somber Kitty is absolutely adorable and simply meowvelous. His determination and loyalty make his part of the story just as important as hers.

Book Two: May Bird Among the Stars

May Bird Among the Stars picks up right where the first book, May Bird and the Ever After, leaves off. May Bird enlists the help of some unique friends, faces the bad guys head-on, and believes that she'll get home, no matter what.

This book does just what the middle book in a trilogy should do: continue the story set up in the first book, offer changes, dangers, and rewards to existing characters, introduce new characters, and have skirmishes with the villains.

May Bird Among the Stars is just as funny and well-paced as its predecessor. It delicately balances the humorous bits with the scary parts, and is intelligent enough to engage adults while fun enough for the target audience of kids.

Book Three: May Bird, Warrior Princess

May Bird, Warrior Princess will be released September 18th. I aim to track it down and read it in one sitting. I will then be sad that the trilogy is over, but I hope to be happy with the ending, rather than disappointed by it. I am quite anxious to see how this all wraps up!

I recommend this series to ages 8 and up. I think kids and adults will get a kick out of it, especially those who are fans of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, The Phantom Tollbooth, the many stories about the land of Oz, or the crazy world of Beetlejuice. Also check out the imaginative juvenile fantasy series OutCast by Christopher Golden and Thomas E. Sniegoski and the funny superhero attempts of Owlboy by Thomas E. Sniegoski, illustrated by Eric Powell.



Today is the fifth and final day of the week-long Recommendations Under the Radar blog project created by Colleen of Chasing Ray. Bildungsroman is one of many blogs participating in this event, in which bloggers post about favorite books which worth their weight in gold but may have slipped under the radar for many readers. Here's my schedule.

Friday Round-Up
A Chair, A Fireplace & A Tea Cozy: The Vietnam books by Ellen Emerson White
Big A, little a: The Deep by Helen Dunmore
Bildungsroman: The May Bird Trilogy by Jodi Lynn Anderson
Finding Wonderland: The Avion My Uncle Flew by Cyrus Fisher
Not Your Mother's Bookclub: A look at some recently revised classics
Fuse Number 8: Stoneflight by George McHarque
Lectitans: Gentle's Holler and Louisiana Song both by Kerry Madden
Chasing Ray: Kipling's Choice by Geert Spillebeen
Interactive Reader: A Plague of Sorcerers by Mary Frances Zambreno
The YA YA YAs: Resurrection Men by TK Welsh
Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast: Such a Pretty Face: Short Stories About Beauty edited by Ann Angel

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I run to feel my heart beat hard against my ribs, to feel strong, tough and free. I run from school and the good girls, the bad girls, all the labels. Once, just days before he died of a swollen heart, I ran from the most popular boy in school. And then, the day he died, a new boy arrived. A boy I would run to if he would let me, and maybe he will.

This is the story. It's about love. No matter how hard I try, it's never quite right. But I keep trying. I keep running anyway.

-- from the back cover of Swollen by Melissa Lion

And then, the first line:

I ran.

And then, from the second page:

I was a middle girl. In everything I did.

Samantha Pallas is that middle girl. She is a part of her high school's cross-country team, which is the best team in school. but there are always girls in front of her, leading the pack, winning the races. She watches her classmates succeed in athletics, in school, in life, as she struggles to find her footing. She yearns to be seen, yet is content to get lost in the quiet. Often, she gets lost with a quiet boy, but even then, it is just for a short time, for an eyeblink, then never seen again, for the duration of a heartbeat, never long enough to have that heart fill with love.

Owen, Sam's classmate who died unexpectedly, was also a runner. Farouk, the boy who arrives at their school the day the tragedy is announced at assembly, doubts that Owen died of heart failure.

When Sam's friend Chloe expresses sadness at Sam's being an only child, Sam is quick to correct her: "I'm an only, not a lonely." She won't be an only child much longer: her father's girlfriend, who lives with them, is pregnant.

Sam feels detached from different situations on different levels. She worries that she may disappear altogether, yet she is not without hope, without some happiness.

Swollen has something in common with The Book Thief by Markus Zusak and The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald: I can open the book up to almost any page and find a quote that I love.

And so I waited in the library and touched the spines of the books I should have read long ago to make myself smart, to keep up with him. - Page 161

I have recommended Melissa Lion's novels to my customers many times. I would really love if someone would reading this blog would take me up on this recommendation. Swollen was an amazing debut novel and Upstream was an amazing sophomore release. Both made it onto my Best Books of 2005 list. Both blew me away.

If you like novels by Sarah Dessen - especially The Truth about Forever - then you must read Swollen by Melissa Lion immediately.

This is the first of three entries I will post today regarding Swollen. I had the opportunity to speak with Melissa Lion at length about her writing career. She shared something that really struck me, and that she has permissed me to reprint here. (A million thanks, Melissa.) I will post our interview later today, so please visit Bildungsroman again this evening.

Visit Melissa Lion's website. Read an excerpt of Swollen at the Random House website. Note that this excerpt is from Chapter One, but the book opens with a brief, powerful untitled prologue, which I quoted at the beginning of this post.



Today is the fourth day of Recommendations Under the Radar, a week-long literature project. Radar Recommendations was dreamed up by Colleen of Chasing Ray, and many blogs are participating in an effort to attract new readers to stories that are worthy of more attention and discussion. Here's my schedule.

After everyone else posts their Thursday recommendations, I will add a list of links and titles to this entry.

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Once upon a time, there was a girl named Beckett. She was young, innocent, unaware of the horrors that awaited her along the path of growing up. As Beckett began to walk this path in bare feet, she encountered a woman who was beautiful and cold and a young man who was gentle and kind. Beckett began to tremble; her father began to crumble. It was then that the girl knew there would be no happy ending for this princess - and that she would have to give up something near and dear to her if she were to survive this ordeal.

She would have to give up her innocence.

Innocence by Jane Mendelsohn almost sounds like a fairy tale when its plot is described ever so briefly: an only child, whose mother is dead and whose father is lonely, has her life changed by an evil stepmother. However, there are twists and rips in the typical pattern, and things and characters are not always as they seem. The setting is modern-day, the protagonist is a teenager attending high school, and the stepmother is the school nurse.

Beckett's journey is like something out of a dream, and Mendelsohn's writing is evocative and lyrical. I could talk about one or both of these things for days, and I will most likely share additional, individual thoughts on this title later.

However, I am not alone today. There are three bloggers who chose to discuss this book today: Colleen (CM) from Chasing Ray, Kiba (KH) from lectitans, and Little Willow (LW) from Bildungsroman. Each of us will be posting one portion of our discussion today, and here is part one: The Final Girl Theory.

There's a character in every horror movie who doesn't die. She's the survivor, the Final Girl. She's the one who finds the bodies of her friends and understands that it is she who is in danger. She is the one who runs and suffers. She is the one who shrieks and falls. Her friends understand what is happening to them for no more than an instant before they die. But the Final Girl knows for hours, maybe days, that she is going to die. She hears death coming. She hears it. She sees it.

Welcome to my nightmare. - The entirety of Chapter 4, Page 13

LW: What do you all think of The Final Girl theory? This book was the first time I had heard it referenced as such. I myself just acquired a role in a play in which I am the last girl standing, which made one of my friend’s joke that I am The Girl Who Lived, which made me think of the Final Girl theory. It was startling to apply that to myself - albeit in a fictional sense - since I've been utterly fascinated with the concept even before I heard that it had a name.

CM: I have heard of the Final Girl theory. I was in high school in the 1980s when all those movies: Friday the 13th, Halloween, Nightmare on
Elm Street , etc. were hugely popular. We knew who was going to die from the very beginning and there was always that girl at the end who had seen it all and survived (generally the first one to die in the sequel though...:)

But one person remains, one girl, the Final Girl. She outlives the others. She wields the knife.

She runs like a maniac across the screen. She has blood in her hair and survival in her eyes. She stares hard at the monster. She's afraid of it, and then suddenly she's past being afraid. That's when the Final Girl kills the monster. She stabs it, again and again. When she's finished killing the monster, she slashes everything around her. Then she slices right through the screen. The Final Girl looks out through the gash in the screen, and she sees them, the bats looking hungrily up at her. She sees the silver dagger clenched in her hand, and just as she's about to let it go, she stabs herself in the heart. She feels the cold, silver dagger in her heart dissolve. She feels it morph into beads of mercury.

That's when she gets it. She gets the wisdom. And then she comes running off the screen. - Page 145-146

KH: I think the Final Girl theory is fascinating. I am very interested in issues of gender identity, so the part that plays in the Final Girl theory really holds my interest. In Innocence, however, there are no male antagonists - with the exception of her father, just about everyone Beckett deals with is female. How does that change the significance of her being the Final Girl?

CM: You know I wondered about this - about how Mendelsohn has basically melded the thoroughly modern Final Girl theory with the much older evil stepmother idea. (Although from reading articles on fairy tales I believe the stepmother issue is more of a 19th century invention; that it was the actual parents who were evil way way back.) This is a female-centric book though - a hugely female-centric book. The Final Girl, evil stepmother, suicides of beautiful girls, menstruation . . . it seems there was a purposeful intent to remove men largely from the tale.

CM: (con't) Joss Whedon played with all this a bit as you know LW - except he embraced the girl who died first, the blonde cheerleader type - and pretty much made her the final girl. Buffy sees it all and survives it all and tells the tale. She's the only one who knows when the series starts - the only one from her old school that really knew what happened in the gym. Joss just changed all that by giving her friends who lived, etc.

KH: I couldn't tell you how many hours I've spent hashing out Buffy with LW, not even a little. (Many nights of lost sleep!)

(LW nods and smiles)

KH: What Joss did that is especially exciting I think is having the first blonde in the series, who might be the final girl, turn out to be a killer. (I'm referring to Darla here.) I know Darla isn't so very significant but that image of the sweet girl face turning into the demon face is powerful. Buffy is the anti-Final Girl kind of, but the gender fluidity issue comes into play here. Buffy is constantly killing bad guys, and always appropriating the phallus with her use of the stake. I'm not sure how much of that is just "Well that's how you kill a vampire" and how much is supposed to be gender fluidity. I do feel like a lot of men watched Buffy, without feeling great discomfort that we were expected to identify with this female protagonist. Buffy's villains, though, were almost uniformly male: the Master, Angel, the Mayor, Adam (though you could say something interesting about Maggie Walsh there I'm sure), Glorificus who took a female form but had a male name, was always described as a god and not a goddess, and shared a body with a man - then we have evil Willow and the First Evil, which don't really fit the pattern.

CM: Not to go off on a huge Buffy tangent (oh - if only we could....:) but I think evil Willow was separate from Buffy; she was a totally separate storyline that distanced itself from Buffy or perhaps showed that the only way to destroy her was through her friends. I do think that Mendelsohn has embraced the Final Girl theory hugely in this story - she's a virgin, she's naive, she has few friends, she ends up getting accepted by the "cool girls" and then sees all them die. And she was the true target all along - and thus the only one who really has a chance at winning.

Other interesting Buffy deal: Beckett is fairly unpopular or at least not a social butterfly as the book begins; Buffy was hugely popular and became unpopular as she embraced being the slayer. More of Joss's anti-Final Girl maneuvering.

So anyway - the Final Girl theory is great and very cool to see it played with here. (And perhaps this is why Beckett has a masculine name and further explanation for why Buffy has such a feminine one - she's the anti-Final Girl!)

We do have a combination of things here though in that the villain is a woman and classic figure - the stepmother. Why do you suppose it had to be a stepmother instead of the more expected stepfather?

KH: Is the stepfather more expected? I have always felt like a stepmother is the greatest threat to a girl: there's the notion that she has replaced the mother in the household, but also that she sort of replaces the girl in her father's affections. As the stepmother takes hold, the girl seems to become invisible. We very rarely see the father at all when there's a stepmother involved.

CM: I do agree that a stepmother is a great threat to a girl - but only if she is living with her father. A stepfather is a huge threat as well if you are living with your mother (trust me, I know). My thought about it being an expected stepfather was just going along with the Final Girl theory - in that case it would be a man that Beckett would be up against. But because her mother is dead, of course it has to be a woman who she fights (metaphorically or otherwise) for her father's affections. Step parents in general are enormously hard for any child/teen. It's the fact that you're parents are always likely to believe you, no matter way. It seems (to me anyway) that a step parent is always likely to doubt you and that doubting can turn your surviving parent against you (as we see with Beckett). She's fighting for her life, her sanity, and to prove to her father that she is the one who is truly worthy of his love.

Pretty heavy stuff when you think about it.

Continue to read the discussion at Chasing Ray (Part Two) and Lectitans (Part Three).

This is day three of Recommendations Under the Radar (or Radar Recommendations), a book review and discussion project in which a variety of literature bloggers have been participating this week. Radar Recs was dreamed up by Colleen of Chasing Ray as a way to shine the spotlight on some outstanding but often overlooked books. Here's my schedule.

After everyone posts their Wednesday recommendatios, I will add a list of links and titles to this entry.

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The Girl in the Box is Jackie, a teenager whose life changes the instant she is kidnapped. Locked in a basement-like room without any exit, without any light, Jackie inventories what she does have: one jar of water, a little bit of food, paper, and a typewriter. That is all.

She begins to type up letters. Some letters are to her friends. Some are to her family members. Others are to herself. She describes the kidnapping, although she doesn't know who took her or why such a thing happened. She details her surroundings. She wonders why she's there, and when and if she will go home. She remembers memories, both fond and painful.

This book makes me simultaneously cherish my freedom and miss my typewriter. I found this book in the library as a child and checked it out repeatedly. I had a typewriter at the time. No, I never attempted to recreate her story as either a writer's exercise or an actor's exercise, but I did love writing on that typewriter. Currently, I am working on a character who is victimized, and although her situation and circumstances are quite different from Jackie's, the timing of this post is still quite eerie. I made my selections for the Radar Recommendations project months ago and could not have known then that these two characters would be meeting in my mind today as I considered them in turn.

The fact that this book is now out-of-print makes me quite sad for multiple reasons, including my wish for another generation to discover it, this generation that is eating up heavy teen fiction, and because I'd love to actually own a copy.

I really want to read it again, and read it outside rather than inside. I feel as though that location change would make for an entirely different experience - to just be sitting where this character is not, cannot, would not be - In fact, I think it would almost make me feel guilty to be taking in the sky and sun and grass and trees as I turned the pages.

Perhaps The Girl in the Box by Ouida Sebestyen is still circulating in your library. Please go check out and tell me what you think.



This is the second post in a series of Recommendations Under the Radar (or Radar Recommendations). RR is a project involving a multitude of literature blogs, as headed up by Colleen of Chasing Ray. The aim of this project is to encourage readers to pick up books which may have escaped their attention until now. Different blogs will be recommending different books all week long. Here's my schedule.

Once everyone has posted their recs for today, I'll add their links and titles here as well.

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While Jackie and I were comparing notes and completing the Body of Evidence survey, I took the opportunity to ask author Christopher Golden for the inside scoop on the series.

Favorite main character?

Jenna, of course!

Favorite supporting character?

Slick. I love them all, but Slick is so much fun to write.

Favorite book in the series?

Probably Thief of Hearts, though I'm also quite partial to Last Breath and Skin Deep.

What inspired the series?

My editor at the time called me up and said, "Three words: Scully in college." I took it from there.

What prompted you to (FINALLY!) write a teen fiction series?

I'd actually written two YA horror novels in the mid nineties. They were fairly mediocre, but I'd always wanted to do it again. I like to think I have a fairly decent handle still on what it felt like to be in high school.

When and how did Rick Hautala come on board?

I'd agreed to write a second series for Pocket and thought it would be easier--and energizing--to collaborate with someone on the series. I'd known Rick for many years, since before I wrote my first novel, and I think we gelled really well. Though his name isn't on the cover, the first book he co-wrote with me was SKIN DEEP. They'd already done the cover before he came on board, believe it or not.

How much research did you do to ensure the stories' authenticity?

I talked to everyone. Doctors, medical examiners, FBI, Coast Guard, cops...you name it, I talked to them. Where the weird science was concerned, I let myself improvise. But most of the real medical stuff comes directly from first hand conversations.

Would you ever write more BoE books?

In a heartbeat. I'm just waiting for the opportunity.

Are there more stories to tell?

Thousands.

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When Little Willow from Bildungsroman and Jackie from Interactive Reader discovered they had both selected the Body of Evidence series by Christopher Golden and Rick Hautala for Radar Recommendations, they decided to compare notes on the books. This led to a survey of sorts.

Favorite main character?
LW: Jenna!
Jackie: No choice.

Favorite supporting character?
LW: I'd love to list all of them. Slick is smart, Al is sweet, Melody, Hunter, Danny . . .
Jackie: Oh, Danny. Definitely Danny. But the great thing about this series is that ALL of the supporting characters are fully presented. You kinda like them all.
LW: Agreed.

Favorite book in the series?
LW: Body Bags, then Thief of Hearts and Skin Deep.
Jackie: Soul Survivor, I think. It's a hard question. Maybe Last Breath.

Why did you pick them up?
LW: I started working for Christopher Golden in 1998. I redesigned his website, then started maintaining the site and doing online publicity for his books. Thus, I was there when Body Bags was in the works, and I was beyond thrilled that he was finally writing books for the teen fiction section. Ask Chris. When he told me he was writing a new series that was about murder, forensics, and college, I pretty much screamed.

Jackie: I was in Library School and my YA Lit professor, Holly Ward-Lamb (who is magnificently awesome, BTW), required us to read one book from a paperback series. She was very concerned that her students didn't get elitist about literature, and that we read at least SOME of what the kids actually read, so I tried Body Bags upon her recommendation. I was hooked.

Why did you keep reading the series?
LW: Because Golden Books are the Best Ever. Truly. I
was a reader before I was a friend of his. That is how
I came to know him. I admire his writing. The entire
Body of Evidence series is well-plotted and
well-written. Each book stands alone, yet is part of
the bigger picture -- just as a series should be!

Jackie: Because they are Freakin' Awesome. And I say that as a person who has never met or received monetary compensation from the author. ;)

LW: Hey, now. I'm not partial or anything. :)

Had you read Christopher Golden books before?
LW: Yes, since 1997. See above.
Jackie: Nope. Body Bags was the first.
LW: I hadn't read Rick Hautala's books before he joined the series. I then read his novel The White Room, which was written under the pseudonym A. J. Matthews.

Do you like murder mysteries?
LW: Yes! I love mysteries when they are done well. I also love procedural television series like Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. To quote one of my current stage roles, "What I say is, let justice be done!"

Jackie: Nope. They are usually WAY too predictable and repetitive. What? The bad guy lost? Shocking. (Not that I'd have it any other way.)

Do the books feel accurate?
LW: Definitely. The research is evident.
Jackie: Beats me. I'm not a Science Nerdfighter. But from a literature standpoint, everything hung together.

The books get pretty gruesome, what with the autopsies and the murders. Do you have a strong stomach?
LW: Yes.
Jackie: Ironclad.

Did you read the series in order?
LW: Yes.
Jackie: Blasphemy. As if there's another way.
(LW cheers. She obviously feels the same.)

Does the series feel like it's done?
LW: No! It should never be over!
(LW is in denial.)
Jackie: Not really. I think that Jenna's a character that could always be picked up again, even 10 years later. She's strong enough that her story will always be interesting.

If more books were written and released, would you read them?
LW: Yes, immediately.
Jackie: What she said.

Are there more stories to tell?
LW: I think so. I think Jenna has a promising future
in front of her.
Jackie: Uh, what I said.

This is the second of three entries regarding the Body of Evidence book series as part of Recommendations Under the Radar, a literature blog project headed up by Colleen of Chasing Ray as a way to encourage readers to pick up some amazing books that deserve your immediate attention.

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It was a beautiful day to grow up.

Body Bags, a mystery written by Christopher Golden, opens with a killer line: Amanda Green died for a cigarette. Within a matter of pages, Amanda is a goner, having been at the wrong place at the wrong time. It just goes to prove what I've been saying all of my life: Smoking kills. Don't smoke.

But this book is not all about vices. It is about solving the crime, bringing the guilty ones to justice, and taking the most dangerous journey of all: growing up.

The Body of Evidence novels written by Christopher Golden and Rick Hautala are intelligent and intriguing forensic mysteries. They offer realistic characters, captivating clues, and detailed autopsies and investigations. The line is made up of ten books, starting with Body Bags, first published by Pocket Books in 1999.

After the tragic prologue, the first chapter introduces us to Jenna Blake, the character who is the core of every novel in the series. The series begins as she travels to college, where she will be a freshman. She considered following in her mother's footsteps and work in medicine until she realized that the sight of blood made her feel out of sorts. Her father, a criminology professor, recommends that she take a job with a medical examiner. The interview takes place during an autopsy. As she settles into school and the M.E.'s office, Jenna soon finds that she has not only the stomach for the job, but the smarts. Ultimately, it is her attention to detail and her insatiable thirst for knowledge as well as her previously unrecognized capacity for daring that solves the troubling case.

The first chapter begins with the line, "It was a beautiful day to grow up." I proudly display this quote at the Bildungsroman website as well as in the sidebar of this blog.

This series is recommended to adults and to teenagers. Readers will find Jenna visiting crime scenes and autopsy rooms nearly as often as she's in her dorm. Her relatives, friends, and studies factor into the books just as much as serial killers and detectives. There's just as much here for a fifty-year-old as for a fifteen-year-old. Throughout the series, Christopher Golden - and, later, collaborator Rick Hautala - created characters who are believable but anything but cookie-cutter. They are all adults, though some are younger than others. Some are parents, some are students, some are detectives, some are doctors, but all are vital to the progress of the stories and of each other. Instead of being full of teen angst or taking on the obvious issue of the week/episode/book, the younger characters are simply dealing with life and getting through things both one day at a time and one leap at a time.

As I wrote in my article entitled Judging the Cover, the book covers in this series never have models and never show a girl dressed in hip clothes. Depicted instead are toe tags, X-rays, bones, eyes, markings and tools used within the story. The covers are dominantly grey, with each book having a different bold accent color. All have a trademark striped pattern down the left edge that repeats itself on the chapter breaks within.

The quality of Body Bags is above and beyond most suspense novels - and it continues throughout the series, versus other series which lose the moomentum after a few books, or series in which the books become carbon copies.

If you watch(ed) television series such as CSI: Crime Scene Investigation or Profiler, then you need to read these books right now. In fact, the first six books were released before CSI was even on the air, but the ninth and tenth books had a little cover tagline: "If you like CSI, you'll love Body of Evidence." It's true - and it's true in the reverse. CSI would benefit from a BoE crossover. Greg and Dyson could have a funny scene, and Slick could exchange notes with Grissom and Dr. Robbins.

For the record, Jenna is far cooler than Sara Sidle.

I highly recommend that you read the Body of Evidence books in order:
- Body Bags
- Thief of Hearts
- Soul Survivor
- Meets the Eye
- Head Games
- Skin Deep
- Burning Bones
- Brain Trust
- Last Breath
- Throat Culture

Related Posts: Author Spotlight: Christopher Golden, Where to Start: Reading Christopher Golden

This is the first of three entries I will post today regarding the Body of Evidence book series as part of Recommendations Under the Radar, a literature blog project headed up by Colleen of Chasing Ray as a way to encourage readers to pick up some amazing books that deserve your immediate attention.

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Next week, I will be participating in another blog tour project dreamed up by Colleen from Chasing Ray. Monday through Friday, bookish blogs will be posting Recommendations from Under the Radar, encouraging people to pick up books that may have escaped their attention. Some of the chosen titles are out-of-print while others are recent releases. Nearly every genre and age group will be represented.

Here's my schedule:

On Monday, Interactive Reader and I will discuss the Body of Evidence series by Christopher Golden and Rick Hautala. Tune in for a very special appearance.

On Tuesday, I'll type about Girl in a Box by Ouida Sebestyen. If I had a nickel for every time I checked this book out of the library when I was little, I'd be rich. Sadly, it is now out-of-print. As I type this paragraph now, I'm getting chills because I'm realizing that this title slightly corresponds to a role I'm currently rehearsing.

On Wednesday, Innocence by Jane Mendelsohn will be considered at length, with a three-person discussion shared at Chasing Ray, Bildungsroman, and Lectitans in turn.

On Thursday, I will praise Swollen by Melissa Lion. The author has shared a sadly beautiful story-behind-the-story with me.

On Friday, I will encourage kids and adults alike to read the May Bird trilogy by Jodi Lynn Anderson. The third book won't be released until September, and I can't wait to read it.

Visit Colleen's blog Chasing Ray to learn more about this project and view the schedule in its entirety.

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On Friday, August 3rd, I got up bright and early - which I always do, but this time, I had a very special purpose. I had been invited to speak on a panel with four other lit-happy bloggers at The Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators conference. Our panel was entitled Having Our Say: Blogging About Children's Literature. I was flattered to be in such good company and looked forward to meeting my fellow panelists - Gina from AmoXcalli, a. fortis and TadMack from Finding Wonderland and Readers' Rants, and Kelly from Big A, little a - in person.

Sadly, Gina had become ill earlier in the week and was unable to attend. However, she truly was a part of our panel, as she had created the bulk of our PowerPoint slideshow. If and when someone posts the slideshow online, I'll add a link to it in this post. Thank you so much, Gina, for all of your hard work. I hope that you are feeling better and that we do meet up in the future.

Kelly and I met up in the morning and discussed the wonders of technology and travel until TadMack and TechBoy arrived. Before we knew it, it was time for the conference to begin, and poor a. fortis was still stuck in traffic. Kelly, TadMack and I scurried into the grand ballroom, where nearly one thousand people had already gathered, and listened to the hilarious welcome speech from Lin Oliver, the SCBWI Executive Director.

The faculty members - anyone speaking on a panel - then lined up and introduced themselves one by one (or group by group - go, Class of 2k7!), with each person saying one word that represented his/her/their panel or mood. When John Green introduced himself and added, "Nerdfighters," a young woman screamed loudly to show her support.

Yes, that was me.

I apologized to Kelly and TadMack for bursting their eardrums. Shortly thereafter, we took to the stage, introduced ourselves, and said:

"Controversy . . .
" . . . conflict . . . "
" . . . and connectivity."

Oh, how I adore alliteration!

a. fortis arrived shortly after the introductions. We all headed over to the room where our panel was going to be held. While telling each other our life stories and discussing new and classic stories, we reviewed the slideshow, which ran throughout the panel.

Once our room filled up, we filled an hour with talk and laughter. I know we could have talked all day about the importance of literacy, free speech, and communication. After briefly introducing ourselves, we talked about our love of literature and of blogging while TadMack clicked through screenshots of various lit blogs and online events. We talked about The Cybils, Toon Thursday, Poetry Friday, The Edge of the Forest, readergirlz, the upcoming 1st Annual Kidlitosphere Conference as planned by Robin Brande, MotherReader's The 48 Hour Book Challenge, 7-Imp's 7 Kicks, The Carnival of Children's Literature, Chasing Ray's various events (the Summer Blog Blast Tour and Wicked Cool Overlooked Books plus the upcoming Winter Blog Blast Tour, Radar Recommendations, and One-Shot World Tour), Class of 2k7, The Longstockings, and more.

Many thanks to the bloggers, authors, and readers who attended our panel. Thanks also to those who sent us notes of support and good luck wishes.

I have an idea for next time: broadcast the panel live on the internet - podcast, anyone? - or incorporate a chat element, making it accessible to the everyone who can't attend in person and encouraging them to take part and ask questions.

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