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Guest blogger and First Book supporter Mindy Klasky is the author of six fantasy novels, including the award-winning, best-selling The Glasswrights’ Apprentice and numerous short stories. Her latest trilogy, The Jane Madison Series, chronicles a love-struck D.C. librarian who discovers she’s a witch. Visit www.mindyklasky.com to learn more about Mindy’s work and her support of First Book.

When I was a child, my parents told me that books could take me anywhere I wanted to go.  Books were like magic lamps, filled with genies just waiting to grant wishes for me.  I could travel as far as Narnia as I read C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, or I could stay as close as my own backyard, reading through the field guides of Herbert S. Zim, searching for the birds and insects and other creatures so painstakingly drawn in those pocket books.

My short stories and novels allow me to continue studying the power of wishes.  I can explore what the world would be like if witches truly did have powers to work their spells in the suburbs of Washington, DC (the Jane Madison Series).  I can play with forces of nature, extrapolate how priestesses could harness the age-old wisdom of their predecessors through an ancient, all-observing tree (Season Of Sacrifice).  I can study the high points and low points of human nature when children are used as political pawns, fighting to do what is good in kingdoms where evil is all too common (the Glasswrights Series).

In my most recent books, though, I can explore the power of wishing much more directly.  Kira Franklin, the stage manager heroine of How  Not To Make A Wish, finds a magic lamp that contains a wish-granting genie.  She wishes her way into a production of Romeo and Juliet, thinking that her professional and personal lives will never be better.  Only then does she discover that some wishes are much more complicated than she’d ever envisioned.

Playing with Kira and her magic lamp allowed me to consider what I would wish for if a genie ever manifested in my home office.  (More bookshelves might be the first order of the day!)  I’ve considered gifts that I would give my family and friends.  I’ve thought about treasures I would seek for myself.

I’m collecting wishes, to include on my website in October, when the As You Wish series officially launches.  Tell me your wish in comments below, and I’ll include it on my website!  (Don’t be shy – I won’t be including names!)

Celebrating another book birthday today! 

Today, AS YOU WISH, a novel for teens written by Jackson Pearce and published by Harper Collins makes it way into the world. Here's what it's about, courtesy of Jackson, who is also the founder of the 2009 Debutantes, a group of debut writers for kids and young adults.

Seven months ago, Viola's boyfriend shared a secret that ended their relationship. Heartbroken, Viola has resigned herself to near invisibility, until she inadvertently summons a young jinn out of his world, Caliban, and into her own. Here he will remain until she makes three wishes.

Jinn is anxious to get back to Caliban, but Viola is terrified of wishing, afraid her wishes will be manipulated into curses. Jinn knows that should she wait too long, the Ifrit, guardians of earthbound jinn, will press her to wish by hurting those around her.As they spend time together, Jinn can't deny that he's slowly falling in love with Viola, blurring the lines between master and servant. It's only after Viola makes her first wish—for a popular boy to love her—that she realizes the feelings are mutual.

With every wish Jinn's time with her diminishes, but the longer she waits to wish the greater danger she's in from the Ifrit. Together, Viola, Jinn, and Viola's ex-boyfriend try to outwit the Ifrit while dealing with their own romantic complexities and the alcohol-laced high school social scene.

For more on AS YOU WISH and Jackson Pearce, visit her website/blog where she shares stories of publishing and some mighty funny videos. This woman is dangerous with a FlipCam.  Really.   You can buy AS YOU WISH from an Indie bookstore through the ever-awesome IndieBound.