I am the author of FLASH BURNOUT, a young adult novel scheduled for publication in Fall 2009.

This blog is my online playground. I do talk about writing, but you might also find me posting photos, talking about my family, or reviewing books. I conduct a series of interviews with authors of middle and young adult novels, too. You can find those by clicking the tag on the left called “Authorial Intrusion.”

The voters have spoken! More people voted for me to talk about books I’ve read lately than any other topic, so here goes!

I have a policy about not listing books by people I know as Top Ten books at the end of the year. That policy becomes harder to maintain the more authors I get to know. On the one hand, I don’t want to hurt people’s feelings by listing some, but not all the books by people I know. On the other hand, if I did not know a particular author whose book I loved, I would go ahead and enthuse about it, so why should I punish readers by staying silent?

I will continue to omit books by people I know from my year-end Top Ten lists, but I am forging ahead (with some trepidation) to recommend a few today. Good luck to us all! The only thing I can hope is that authors who know me and get offended will in turn refuse to mention MY book on their blog, when it comes out. Heh.

1) THE DEMON’S LEXICON, by Sarah Rees Brennan, is about two demon-fighting brothers in England who are forced to move from town to town with their half-crazed mother, who stole a powerful charm from an evil magician many years before.

I really don’t want to say too much about this book, because it’s best savored without knowing a lot of details beforehand. I will say that it blew my mind. In fact, it won’t leave my mind, which is why I had to break my books-by-authors-I-know rule! It’s dark, yet it has comedic moments. It’s Harry Potter-esque fantasy, but with a more grown-up feel to it. I’m so glad I have a first edition of this book … someday I’m going to get Sarah’s autograph on it.

2) THE SECRETS OF TRUTH AND BEAUTY, by Megan Frazer, just came out this week! It’s about a girl who was a beauty pageant winner as a child, but who has not been little or adorable in a long time. Megan actually got the spark of inspiration for this book from the movie “Little Miss Sunshine.” As anyone who has seen the movie knows, families are complicated; this book explores what family really means – sometimes it’s people you’re related to, sometimes it’s people who love you for who you really are.

3) TORCHED, by April Henry, is a fast-paced thriller about a teen girl forced to go undercover in an Earth First-type environmental group. Not only is there (are there?) love and lies and bombs, but it's set in Portland!


Let’s call this next section A Tale of Two Books:

4) I finally found time to read the 2009 Printz Award winner – JELLICOE ROAD, by Melina Marchetta.

Librarians are professional readers. So if a bunch of them get together and declare a book to be the BEST Young Adult novel they’ve read, you can be sure that book will be worth your time. Here’s what the Printz Committee had to say about JELLICOE ROAD:

“This roller coaster ride of a novel grabs you from the first sentence and doesn’t let go. You may not be sure where the ride will take you, but every detail—from the complexities of the dual narrative to the pangs of first love—is pitch perfect.”

As an author, I consider myself kind of a professional reader, too. In my efforts to craft compelling prose, I spend a lot of time pondering things like plot, pacing, dialogue, and emotion.

But most readers are not professional readers. They want to be grabbed from the first sentence - yes, JELLICOE ROAD does that – and taken on some kind of journey, whether it’s bumpy and dark, twisty and tree-filled, or full of surprises popping up around every corner. They do not want to be blindfolded and stuffed in the trunk, able to hear only bits and pieces of conversation from your characters … and yes, JELLICOE ROAD does that, too.

When I reached page 100 and still didn’t know where I was going, let alone who was in the car, I almost put the book down. But I’m a professional reader, and the book is a Printz Award winner … it’s almost my duty to read it. So I kept going, and yes, the details are “pitch perfect.”

But I wonder how many people put the book down when they couldn’t figure out who all those MANY characters were (The Brigadier? The boy in the tree?) … and why “hostages” were being taken … and what the story in italics had to do with the rest of the narrative. I can’t help thinking a few simple edits would have clarified some of those details, and kept readers from giving up on the book.

Please don’t take this as an admonition not to read the book – it’s really wonderful, but you must be committed to it in order to achieve your reward. In an attempt to provide the kind of synopsis that would have helped me when I was just starting the book, here’s part of what School Library Journal had to say:

“Grade 8 Up—For years, three factions—Townies, Cadets (city kids doing a six-week outdoor education program), and Jellicoe School students—have engaged in teen war games in the Australian countryside, defending territorial borders, negotiating for assets, and even taking hostages. Taylor Markham, a 17-year-old who was abandoned years ago by her mother, takes on leadership of the boarding school's six Houses. Plagued with doubts about being boss, she's not sure she can handle her Cadet counterpart, Jonah Griggs, whom she met several years before while running away to find her mother. When Hannah, a sort of house mother who has taken Taylor under her wing, disappears, Taylor puzzles over the book manuscript the woman left behind.”

5) I was lucky enough to read an ARC of CATCHING FIRE, the second book in Suzanne Collins’s Hunger Games series.

This book is almost the polar opposite of the previous one. When you buckle up for this ride, the car accelerates steadily, until you’re starting to feel a little nervous, and you want to ask the driver to slow down … but it’s too late, the car has taken a sharp turn off the paved road and is screaming downhill, careening around corners, making you want to shut your eyes and whimper.

I loved it, even though I couldn’t sleep after I finished it … and then when I did, I had nightmares.

That was fun!

But I still want to do a meme, write some flash fiction, and host Tim Gunn at my blog again someday soon.

Stay tuned ...

:-)

I’m delighted to introduce my fellow debut author, Mandy Hubbard, today on Authorial Intrusion.

About Prada and Prejudice:

Fifteen year old Callie just wants to impress the popular girls when she buys a pair of Prada heels on her class trip to London. She didn’t plan on tripping, conking her head, and waking up in 1815! Now she’s wearing corsets with her designer pumps, eating bizarre soups, and breaking up engagements. If only the nineteen year old Duke of Harksbury wasn’t so bloody annoying, she might have a little fun in Austen-Era England…

I can’t imagine any girl reading that synopsis and not wanting to pick up the book. I’ve had the pleasure of reading it, and I can affirm that it’s totally charming and fun!

Breaking news: Mandy received some exciting news about PRADA AND PREJUDICE yesterday – here, I’ll let her tell you herself: http://mandywriter.livejournal.com/197813.html. Woo-hoo!


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This is an image from the 4th of July, 2006. I have lots of ripe blueberries outside waiting to be free of their branches … but it’s sooo hot here. I just want to sit in my air-conditioned house and drink iced tea.

Today’s summer rerun comes from a July 2007 entry, after we returned from our trip to Great Britain.

It’s entitled The Passing Poetry of Place Names:


Through England -

Seething
Spixworth
Blickling
Beccles

Creake South
Crimplesham
Pinchbeck
Bicker

Icklingham
Ugthorpe
Foggathorpe
Grinkle

Shiney Row
Spennymoor
Amble
Flodden


And into Scotland -

Coldstream
Caddonfoot
Peebles
Penicuik

Firth of Forth
Sheriffmuir
Bonnybridge
Beecraigs

Little Glenshee
Killiecrankie
Dalnaspidal
Dalwhinnie

Strathmashie
Loch Lochy
Dingwall
Dunmaglass

I’m delighted to introduce my fellow debut author, Cyn Balog, today on Authorial Intrusion.

About : FAIRY TALE:
Morgan Sparks and Cam Browne are a match made in heaven. They've been best friends since birth, they tell each other everything, and oh yeah - they're totally hot for each other. But a week before their joint Sweet Sixteen bash, everything changes. Cam's awkward cousin Pip comes to stay, and Morgan is stunned when her formerly perfect boyfriend seems to be drifting away. When Morgan demands answers, she's shocked to discover the source of Cam's distance isn't another girl … it's another world. Pip claims that Cam is a fairy. No, seriously. A fairy. And now his people want Cam to return to their world and take his rightful place as Fairy King.

Determined to keep Cam with her, Morgan plots to fool the fairies. But as Cam continues to change, she has to decide once and for all if he really is her destiny, and if their "perfect" love can weather an uncertain future.

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Hi all –

I was off work this week … well, let me re-phrase: I was away from the day job this week, spending time at home on the writing job.

I interviewed a couple of people for research on my new WIP, and I spent three 2-hour stints in a Quiet Room at the library.

I’m fresh out of blogging ideas, so I’m pasting in an entry from January 2007, because it still makes me giggle. (I’ve edited out the contest.) If you feel inspired to mangle some titles, please share!

Here’s the entry:


lisayee has a contest on her blog that caused me to spend way too much time amusing myself, while I worked to craft worthy entries.

I'll copy and paste her rules:

1. Think of a title from a book.

2. Change the FIRST LETTER of ONE of the words to make it into a whole new title.

3. Then add a sentence describing the new book.

As an example, here's my winning entry:

1. Book -- OLD YELLER

2. Changed to -- OLD KELLER

3. Sentence -- Deaf, dumb blind girl gets rabies and has to be shot.

Lisa's contest is for children's/middle grade/young adult books.

I wrote three, then went on to molest a bunch of other titles.


Goy Proof
A sci-fi fan and straight-A teenager works hard to avoid Gentile entanglements before realizing that love can be found in many faiths.

Cooking for Alaska
Pudge earns his nickname by preparing hot meals for the free spirited Alaska.

Vittle Women
A timeless classic about the March sisters and Marmee, who insist upon showing up at their neighbors’ homes with victuals.

The Mound of the Baskervilles
The thrilling Sherlock Holmes tale of murder, madness, and baseball.

One Hundred Bears of Solitude
Magical realism in a Latin American town full of reclusive bears.

Mess of the D’urbervilles
Interminable Victorian novel about lust, betrayal, and untidiness.

Done with the Wind
Epic saga of one woman’s loves, losses, and irritation with weather during the Civil War and Reconstruction.

The Kite Punner
A young Afghan boy loves flying kites and making up puns. No one gets hurt or dies, and they all live happily ever after on his contest winnings from writing advertising jingles.

The Jive People You Meet in Heaven
Touching story of one man’s awakening in heaven, and his growing horror at the realization that he must spend all eternity listening to nothing but jazz.

I’m delighted to introduce my fellow debut author, Sarah Ockler, today on Authorial Intrusion.

About TWENTY BOY SUMMER:
While on vacation in California, sixteen-year-old best girlfriends Anna and Frankie conspire to find a boy for Anna’s first summer romance, but Anna harbors a painful secret that threatens their lighthearted plan and their friendship.

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Happy Father's Day - we had donuts. :-)


I’m deep in the middle of my WIP right now, so I’m blogfail.

I've copied and pasted an entry below that originally ran in June 2006 here. I had finished a first draft of FLASH BURNOUT, but I was still working on it. Now that book is less than six months from its release date. ☺

Here's the rerun:


It was almost time for lunch.

We were almost out of bread.

“Subway?” I called.

“Yay!” I didn’t even have to ask what my son (8yo) wanted: a foot-long roast beef sandwich. Plain.

“Um, I’d rather have something soft,” said DH apologetically. (Mouth still tender from dry socket.) “Maybe a bean and cheese burrito from Taco Bell?”

The line at Subway was long enough that I considered bailing. It consisted of mostly teenage boys and their moms. They were all tall and sweaty, wearing long shorts … fresh from a basketball game. I decided to stay and soak up their gangly presence. My MC is their age.

A kid with nascent sideburns turned toward the kid nearest me and cocked his head, listening. His head began to bob, and he announced, ‘“Peaceful Easy Feeling.’ The Eagles. 1978.”

Then I heard the background music, and sure enough, he was right. Spies should be silent and invisible, but I laughed out loud. He grinned in embarrassment and turned away.

I love that kid. No way should he know that song, but he does. And he was a few years off on the release date (yes, I had to check) but I’m impressed! A quirky teenage boy in the flesh. My MC has some basis in reality, not just my own mind.

I ostentatiously DIDN’T look at him after that, so he could go back to being himself, but yes, I kept my spy-eyes on him. After he ordered, he slouched toward some buddies at a table, paused, and played a little air guitar for “Peaceful Easy Feeling,” out of sheer sarcastic exuberance.

I’m glad we were almost out of bread yesterday.

Driving my son to sports camp Friday morning, I had a character flash. But I was driving. And I had left my notebook at home, anyway.

“Son!”

“Yes?”

“I need you to remember something for me. Okay? Something for my book.”

“What?”

“I’m going to tell you something, and I want you to remember it for me today, and remind me later, so I can write it down, okay?”

“Okay.”

“Here it is: Marissa keeps food in her pockets.”

“What’s the name?”

“Marissa. Marissa keeps food in her pockets.”

“Marissa keeps food in her pockets. Okay.” He chuckled a little. It does sound funny out of context. But Marissa didn’t always get regular meals when she was little, so it’s not funny; it tells the truth.

Of course, after saying it out loud and making a huge deal of it, even I was able to remember the thought, and write it down later. I’ve lost plenty of fleeting ideas.

When I picked Son up from camp at the end of the day, we chatted about dodgeball and capture-the-flag and what to have for dinner, then stopped at the video store for Friday’s Movie Night selection.

“Hey!” I said. “What was it I asked you to remember this morning?”

“Marissa keeps food in her pockets.”

"That's right! Thank you."

Sarah Cross toyed with my feelings briefly about a year ago when she contemplated moving to Portland. Then she abandoned the idea like a cake in the rain, leaving me to spend the rest of my life in an agony of despair.

She’s like that.

Heehee!

Sarah is one of my “oldest” LiveJournal friends; I still remember the day she finally admitted to me that she’d sold her YA novel, DULL BOY. She was shy about publicizing the big news, so I got to celebrate with her in super-sekrit fashion for awhile. At the time, I had no idea my own YA novel would sell, and we would end up sharing a debut year. Yay! Although Sarah chose New York over me, we'll always have 2009. :-D

About DULL BOY:
Superpowers are awesome -- unless you actually have them, like Avery does. There's only so much he can pass off as "adrenaline" before people start to get suspicious. Probably it's best to lie low, so guys in white lab coats don't come to carry him away, to find out what makes his freakish body tick. Who wants to be vivisected? But flying under the radar becomes a whole lot harder when you can actually fly. It's dangerous to be different, so for now he'll pretend to be normal, unremarkable Avery -- a dull boy -- anything to keep his secret safe.

What he doesn't expect is the horrifying truth about where his powers came from, who else might have them, and the madness of one villain's plan to turn this superpowered dull boy into something even more powerful and amazing.

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It’s me again.

(It seems like every time I think I'll be absent from LJ, I start posting even more. ?!)

I’m still working on playlists, and I have a new question:

Which songs blew you away the first time you heard them?

There are lots of songs I love … but that I didn’t love immediately.

But some songs win me over instantly, for various reasons – passion, novelty, humor, some indefinable something.

Here are a few examples:

“Why”, by Annie Lennox. I first heard this song when she sang it live on “Saturday Night Live,” and that kind of raw, angry emotion, coming from a woman was still a little shocking.

“Creep,” by Radiohead. Oh the self-loathing! Oh the falsetto wailing! Oh Thom Yorke!

“Bring Me to Life,” by Evanescence. When I first heard this on the radio, I actually called the station to ask who the artist was.

“Breathe,” by Sia. Slurry singing backed by inexorable beats – just something seductive about it.

“Hot in Herre,” by Nelly. So funny! Plus, bonus: you can dance to it. I just love, “Girl, I think my butt gettin’ big!”

Okay, I could do this for hours, but I’ve got to get back to work.

Do me a solid and share songs that rocked your world from the very first.

Love,

iLisa

My ARCs are here!

The middle of any book is hard, right?

Or is it just me?

When I'm neck-deep in the featureless desert of a first draft, the desire to abandon it and start working on a new project seems way more fun.

I think a playlist would help!

Please give me suggestions for songs that evoke:

being the new kid

trying to fit in

a crush

uh ...

any songs you're especially liking!

I’m delighted to introduce my fellow debut author, Aprilynne Pike, today on Authorial Intrusion.

Aprilynne Pike's WINGS is the first of four books about an ordinary girl named Laurel who discovers she is a faerie sent among humans to guard the gateway to Avalon. When Laurel is thrust into the midst of a centuries-old battle between faeries and trolls, she's torn between a human and a faerie love, as well as her loyalties to both worlds.

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Tonight I’m headed to the Lucky Labrador (in southeast Portland) to attend the silent auction fundraiser for Bridget Zinn. The online auction runs for two more days. Check it out – there are LOTS of cool items up for bid, and all the proceeds go to support our Bridget as she battles that b****** cancer.

Oh, and btw, an autographed copy of my ARC is up for grabs.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

It is with extra-special delight that I introduce to you C. Lee McKenzie today on Authorial Intrusion. Lee is not just a fellow debut author, she has been one of my critique partners for several years. After sharing many ups and downs on our paths toward publication, we now share a debut year. I, for one, could not be more thrilled.

It was my pleasure to read Lee’s YA novel, SLIDING ON THE EDGE, in manuscript form. I’m proud to have played a small part in its success, and there is no doubt in my mind that Lee’s editorial insights helped make my novel better.

Alone and broke, Shawna Stone feels she has nothing left to live for. Her daily life is a struggle to survive … and now she is a heartbeat away from giving up. Kay Stone is the grandmother Shawna has never known, and at sixty-four, Kay too feels she has is little left worth fighting for. When the two are thrown together, they circle each other in a crucible of secrets and distrust until saving a doomed horse unites them and gives each a reason to live.

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I’m delighted to host my fellow debut author, Leigh Brescia, today on Authorial Intrusion.

In One Wish, Wrenn desperately wants to be popular and snag a hot boyfriend. Her singing talent lands her a lead role in the high school musical, which sparks a rush to lose weight by opening night. As Wrenn’s waistline shrinks, her circle of friends grows to include the popular girls. But what will be the cost of her drastic new self-improvements?

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