Sometimes when I go on vacation things go wrong. In this case, it's a guest post that should have been posted four days ago. My apologies to Shannon Delany.
Without further ado, here is a snippet from 13 TO LIFE: A Werewolf's Tale.
13 to Life: Chapter 4, part F (used with the author’s permission)
Everyone but Pietr and I did. Pietr watched Mr. Miles and then glanced at me to judge my reaction. I loved history class and would never say otherwise. Mr. Miles was so sarcastic and quirky I felt I understood him best of all my teachers. He examined things from all angles — even the improbable ones. Like a good reporter should. I flipped open my notebook and prepared to take a lengthy amount of notes.
Shannon Delany's first novel (and the beginning of her YA paranormal series) is 13 to Life and is available online and in fine book retailers' stores everywhere (http://tinyurl.com/BuyLinks). Learn more about Shannon at her website or her blog and explore Junction at http://13tolifeseries.com/.
Best Authors You Aren't Reading is an IBWB feature. In it I discuss authors who I don't perceive as being popular, but whom I truly love.
Julian F. Thompson doesn't have a Wikipedia page, though this Answers.com article is a great introduction and intimidates me since I'm trying to write something similar, aside from the biography parts. On LibraryThing.com, his most added book is on 90 shelves; the next book is on a mere 26. (I own both, though neither are on my LibraryThing shelf.) He only recently created a website - the last time I looked for one, it didn't exist. Since 1983, he has written eighteen novels for young adults.
His most famous novel, one of his first, and the first I read, is THE GROUNDING OF GROUP SIX. (Check out this awesome article about it on Jezebel.) This is one of the few books I've had to buy more than once. I lent it out and it never returned. I had to buy this when I found it in Half-Price: parents paying someone to off their kids? An exotic premise, yet strangely believable. With a premise like that, an author has a lot to deliver. Thompson did and I immediately went trolling for his books in all the local USBs and libraries. By now I've read all but a very few.
First, you aren't going to like Thompson if you don't enjoy reading about sex at all. Many of his characters have sex; most of them get into sexually embarrassing situations. Second, his books are almost always feature teenagers versus adults. The bad adults are very bad. The books tend to be very cynical about some things, though most of the teen protagonists are optimists (see A BAND OF ANGELS). Third, some parts of the books are very dated. Only two of them came out in the past decade, so it's to be expected.
Here are some of my favorites:
TERRY AND THE PIRATES
Girl tries to escape boarding school by stowing away on a boat. Boat is driven by the wrong guy, who goes overboard anyway. Girl gets captured by pirates. Boy might not have gone overboard. Boy has split personality, in fact. Boy and girl fall in love and escape the pirates and their offspring. TERRY AND THE PIRATES shows of Thompson's lighter side, which definitely made it work picking up for me. I like when he tackles issues, but sometimes you want to read a book that's insane, knows it is insane, and just goes with it. Terry is clever, in a street-smart sort of way, and pragmatic, just the sort of personality you need when faced by her adventures.
SIMON PURE (no cover image on Amazon)
Did you like Doogie Howser as a kid? Well, here's another story about a whiz kid in college. Simon Pure is smart, but he sticks out like a sore thumb among the older college students. Again, this one is on the lighter side. My copy has a stab mark through it, which I suppose means the previous owner would disagree with my recommendation. But hey, I enjoyed it, and I don't care about the opinion of someone who would mistreat a book so.
Thompson's books are strange. They combine fantasy and reality, contain exaggerated personalities, and are full of teen wish-fulfillment. But even the his light comedies contain darker passages - like getting out of a potential rape - that keep the silliness anchored. To me, his books are compelling because of a juxtaposition of sophistication and trashiness. There's a fearlessness to his writing that I respect. If you want to read something different, try Julian F. Thompson.
Note: Today is the last day to suggest an insult for Lauren Mechling and Lauren Moser's online serial novel MY DARKLYNG.
By Holly Bennett
Available now from Orca
Review copy
While I'm not most familiar with Irish mythology, I do enjoy it quite a bit. (After all, I do consider myself Irish.) I loved seeing an author play around with a short episode in The Fenian Cycle, as opposed to the more popular Ulster Cycle. I also liked that the publisher included a translation of the original episode for comparison. (Do be careful about reading it first, if you aren't familiar with the story, since it will spoil things.) Readers will also enjoy the glossary, since Irish names often have tricky pronounciations. Holly Bennett makes the fortunate decision to use the romanization Sive for the protagonist instead of Sadhbh.
Sive was the first wife of Finn mac Cumhaill (whom you may know as Finn McCool), a Sidhe woman trapped in the body of a deer. Bennett explores how Sive first came to the attention of the evil druid Far Doirche and turned into a deer. In Bennett's telling, Sive was not turned into a deer by the druid but turned herself into one to escape his unwanted attentions. Sive's singing could charm anyone, and Far Doirche wants access to her power.
I thought Bennett fleshed the story out well, developing an interesting and original cast to accompany the epic figures. She did have little sections marked off by [Character] Remembers . . . that I thought were fairly useless. The book was in the past tense and slipped into people's heads anyway, so the those sections felt redundant and flabby. (Actually, almost all of Bennett's use of POV tricks could've been tightened up.)
The ending, focusing on Sive and Finn's son Oisin, moved a little too quickly for my taste. SHAPESHIFTER truly is Sive's story, but I would've liked to get to know Oisin as well as Sive. SHAPESHIFTER is fairly short, so it probably wouldn't have tasked readers attention spans.
SHAPESHIFTER contains adventure and romance, but will probably appeal most to people interested in mythology. If you aren't familiar with Irish mythology, SHAPESHIFTER is a good place to start. It doesn't ask you to come in familiar with the stories. SHAPESHIFTER is a little rough, but still good light entertainment. The language is easy enough for preteens, but there are oblique sexual references.
The mosquitos in North Dakota are nuts. I have welts up and down my arms, as well as on some more uncomfortable places. I will miss my niece and nephew when I leave next Monday, but not the bug life.
Jennifer Lynn Barnes has an interesting livejournal, which is where I first heard of her. It prompted me to pick up TATTOO, which I enjoyed. (I'm still looking for a copy of FATE.) I'm amazed at how prolific she is, considering the whole college thing and that she's now going off to research in the UK. I'm also amazed that given those constraints her books are so much fun.
RAISED BY WOLVES is the story of Bryn, a young woman who was . . . raised by wolves. She knows how to walk the walk and talk the talk, having lived with werewolves since her parents' murder when she was just a child. But now that she's pretty much a grown-up, she's starting to push the boundaries even more and figure out her place in the world, which has never really existed. Unfortunately, this self-exploration coincides with the arrival of a new werewolf: Chase. Chase was bitten by a rabid, but Bryn always thought you couldn't become a werewolf through a bite.
Perhaps Bryn would recover from this information without much trouble, but she and Chase feel and strange connection and start exhibiting special, unique qualities. This is what I love about Barnes's approach. Normally, I'd be getting annoyed by the human raised by wolves who has super special powers. Yet there always appears to be some reason that Bryn is special aside from the fact she's the main character and it turns out she's not the only special one.
Personally, I felt more attached to most of the secondary characters other than Chase. He's sort of bland and never fleshed out aside from what he means to Bryn's self-discovery. Her old werewolf pals, however, are brilliant. The world's first metrosexual werewolf and a werewolf girl who likes to find out people's secrets and has a weapons fetish would of course be friends with the human Pack member. Callum, the Pack alpha, is also quite compelling. He obviously cares for Bryn, but he just as obviously is caught between a rock and a hard place as he has to enforce the laws and ideals he's shaped.
There's complexity lying beneath RAISED BY WOLVES. There's an exploration of family ties, chosen and natural. There's analysis of a different sort of society, what makes it work and what it's weak points are. There are questions about strength. Ali, Bryn's foster-mother, another human Pack member, may be the strongest character in the book. She sees things more clearly than the younger Bryn and, like Callum, can make the tough decisions needed to keep her family safe.
While some of this complexity slows things down at points (infodumps, mostly), RAISED BY WOLVES generally doesn't feel like it's more complex than your standard paranormal romance. Barnes keeps things moving along and tends to make the proceedings humorous when possible. She has a charming authorial voice that's just what's needed to keep a headstrong and impulsive protagonist like Bryn empathetic. I hope that there will be a sequel just because I enjoyed the world so much.
I am waiting for STAR ISLAND by Carl Hiaasen, coming out in hardcover July 27th. Both my mom and I love Hiaasen's books because they're utterly insane, funny, and sometimes gruesome. (Due to Hiassen, my mom refers to my dad as my "ex-father." Here's the summary, from Amazon:
Meet twenty-two-year-old Cherry Pye (née Cheryl Bunterman), a pop star since she was fourteen—and about to attempt a comeback from her latest drug-and-alcohol disaster.
Now meet Cherry again: in the person of her “undercover stunt double,” Ann DeLusia. Ann portrays Cherry whenever the singer is too “indisposed”—meaning wasted—to go out in public. And it is Ann-mistaken-for-Cherry who is kidnapped from a South Beach hotel by obsessed paparazzo Bang Abbott.
Now the challenge for Cherry’s handlers (über–stage mother; horndog record producer; nipped, tucked, and Botoxed twin publicists; weed whacker–wielding bodyguard) is to rescue Ann while keeping her existence a secret from Cherry’s public—and from Cherry herself.
The situation is more complicated than they know. Ann has had a bewitching encounter with Skink—the unhinged former governor of Florida living wild in a mangrove swamp—and now he’s heading for Miami to find her . . .
Will Bang Abbott achieve his fantasy of a lucrative private photo session with Cherry Pye? Will Cherry sober up in time to lip-synch her way through her concert tour? Will Skink track down Ann DeLusia before Cherry’s motley posse does?
All will be revealed in this hilarious spin on life in the celebrity fast lane.
By Jacqueline Carey
Available now from Grand Central Publishing (Hachette)
Review Copy
I believe my reviews of NAAMAH'S KISS and SANTA OLIVIA that I am a fan of Jacqueline Carey's style. She veers into purple prose sometimes, but it fits the world she's built. NAAMAH'S KISS was the first time I really saw a pattern to her Terre d'Ange trilogies. The second book is where the main couple gets separated, although Moirin and Bao reunite faster than most - only to be separated again. But it does work, because Carey is fabulous at globe-trotting adventures and chasing your lover down is a great way to have a globe-trotting adventure.
I think my favorite culture in NAAMAH'S CURSE where the alternate-world Mongols (Tatars). Carey manages to describe why the various cultures clash without making one the "good" culture and one the "bad" culture. So it's fun to see the Tatars, who are bad guys to the Ch'in, and see them treated sympathetically. Vralia, the alternate world Russia and home of Christians, comes off the worse. But even it contains good people. (Okay, I lied. The Hashashins, transplanted to Tibet, come off the worst.)
But Vralia came to mind first because it provides the first and more interesting antagonists and allies. The double adventure varies the structure slightly, but results in one half being weaker than the other. I think I noticed the pattern because NAAMAH'S CURSE felt like stock adventures rather than a uniquely complex adventure.
It's good that Carey makes her backdrop so convincing, because it also makes the epic romance more convincing. Sometimes its hard to get a grip on Bao's character since Moirin and her narration are so self-centered, but it's hard to deny Moirin's attachment to him. Of course, her past lovers always come up.
I love how tight Carey manages to keep her trilogies while still making them span so much space. The plot sprawls but stays together due to a strong conservation of detail. Old characters (or connections to old characters) show up and everything ties together in the end. Raphael de Merliot is set up to return in the last book, which should be fun.
NAAMAH'S CURSE wasn't Carey's strongest, but it was still fun and fans of the series should enjoy it. While there is a discussion of what came before in Moirin's life, NAAMAH'S CURSE also draws heavily from the Imriel trilogy. Readers might want to start there to get everything possible from the Vralia passages.
Thanks to Hachette, I have three copies to give away. Just fill out the Google Doc form below. The contest will end in two weeks.
By Danielle Ganek Available now from Viking (Penguin) Review copy
I'll be honest: I didn't like F. Scott Fitzgerald's THE GREAT GATSBY. I thought his writing was overly self-conscious and it took me out of the story. Many of my classmates and the teacher, however, found it to be truly romantic.
That would be Peck, the older half-sister who just inherited their Aunt Lydia's ramshackle Fool's House. Her boyfriend Miles gave it to her and she read it over and over during their relationship, holding late night conversations about the book with him. It would also be Cassie (Stella, as Peck calls her), who read it to the point of memorization. Each summer she read a different book at Aunt Lydia's house.
THE SUMMER WE READ GATSBY does interesting things with memory, as both Stella and Peck encounter men they first met that summer. Miles claims to have never read Gatsby. While I don't want to spoil anything, Cassie doesn't even recognize the man she reencounters because her memories were so distorted! Of course, there's also the memory of Aunt Lydia. Now living in her house, the girls realize how little they knew about her past. What is the great treasure she mentioned in her will?
Some things, like the beautiful and quirky Fool-in-Residence seem like something that would only occur in a book. (The author seems caught between supporting the arts and laughing at contemporary art.) Others, like Cassie and Peck's steadily improving relationship seem real and emotionally effective. I thought Danielle Ganek created a nice balance between the two.
THE SUMMER WE READ GATSBY is the kind of summer book I like. It's fully of silly ostentatiousness, although Cassie and Peck are both strapped for cash, sudden romance, and an absorbing setting. Fool's House sounds like a fun place to live even if Southhampton sounds a little crazy. And I do like characters who love classic literature - even if it isn't the same classic lit I love.
Amazon has managed to piss a lot of publishers off recently - the delisting of Macmillan, for example. Not exactly an auspicious start for its foray into publishing. But if CROSSING is an indication of the quality of books they intend to publish, that is an auspicious start.
Andrew Xia Fukuda writes with authority. One of the major problems with small press books is the quality of the writing and editing. But Fukuda's grammar is good and his control of language is strong. CROSSING moves from meditative to harsh to creepy smoothly. The story moves back and forth in time, and I only found the transition jarring once. (Xing's father's death happens suddenly, and there is barely time to process it. In a way, it does fit.)
The main storyline is about Xing Xu, the only Chinese male at his school, finding a way out of his shell through the school's musical just as a series of disappearances and murders of high school boys begin. Xing's only real friend is Naomi Lee, the only other Chinese kid at the school. Her features are more Western and her English is better, while everyone confuses Xing with the Virginia Tech killer despite their lack of resemblance. She blends in better despite originally being the more FOB-ish.* The strain in his only close relationship doesn't do anything for his attitude.
Here's why I know Fukuda is a good writer: I emphasized with Xing and his struggles despite the fact he is not a nice person. He's cruel and petty. Fukuda makes his behavior understandable and illuminates the racism that helped shape Xing's attitude. He doesn't condone Xing's behavior, but presents it as part of his harsh look at American society and its attitudes toward race. It also works because Xing is more than his race. He's a young, lonely boy with a musical gift and no opportunities to express it.
In my mind, I'm going to pretend that CROSSING ends before the real end. It comes to a logical conclusion, but it sure is a downer ending. We all know I'm a sucker for happy endings. Fukuda's debut is atmospheric, character-driven, and affecting. CROSSING is very timely, considering the Virginia Tech Massacre happened only three years ago, but it explore several themes that will be relevant for a long time. The immigrant experience is essential to America.
I both like and dislike the cover. I think it captures the tone of the mystery very well. It has the woods, the figure that is there and isn't, and a moody palette. At the same time, it gives no indication of the conversation about being Chinese in America, which is also an important part of the novel and could draw as many readers in as the mystery.
*FOB stands for fresh-off-the-boat. I've heard the slur used more by immigrants talking about other immigrants, but that could be different elsewhere. Yes, it is a slur and not a nice thing to say.
Lauren Mechling, author of the Dream Girl books, here. I have hijacked Liviania's blog in order to convey some Very Important Information.
You might not know it by looks alone (no pink hair, no metal bar through my septum), but I've become a total hacker worthy of her own "Dragon Tattoo" installment. And I'm not just talking about how I've cracked the code and broken onto In Bed With Books. My new book MY DARKLYNG, which I co-wrote with Laura Moser (my hilarious co-author on the "10th Grade Social Climber" books), is a YA thriller chockablock with multimedia awesomeness that will be appearing in serialized form on the awesome website Slate.com. The first installment runs today, and there will be more excitement every Friday for the rest of the summer. Also: it's free!
Slate is calling MY DARKLYNG its "juicy summer read for vampire lovers (and haters!)." It's about a normal 10th grade girl named Natalie Pollock whose own fiction addiction gets her into major trouble. She's been reading Fiona St. Claire's yummy "Dark Shadows" book series since middle school and when she sees a post on Fiona's blog about an open casting call for the model for the next book's cover, well, she can't resist. What she had thought was just a random field trip turns into a dark and terrible new-best-friendship, scarier and more thrilling than any of Fiona St. Claire's vampire novels.
MY DARKLYNG is different from anything you've ever read before--it's a first-of-its-kind story told in simultaneous platforms. Huh? you ask. Okay, so here's the deal: While you are perfectly free to follow the MY DARKLYNG chapters on Slate and leave it at that, we have been milking the magic world of the Internet for all its worth. Why limit a story to mere words? What about pictures and videos and weird Tweets and scary Facebook wall posts that bring texture to the story and bring the characters to life? With that in mind, we found real (and really awesome) teenagers to play our characters. Expect to get to know their faces really well over the course of this book.
Without further ado, this is the Slate page that will host the chapters. Here is Natalie's Facebook page--well worth "liking" so you can follow when weird things start happening on it. Natalie's Twitter page is here. Fiona's (the vampire writer) Twitter page is here. Natalie's best friend Jenna tweets here. James (the vampire model) tweets here. And Fiona's loving sister Tilly uses this Twitter page.
Natalie and Jenna post Youtube videos here. Here's a sample video that shows them getting ready for the audition that will change their lives.
Now YOU can help make our great experiment in Internet fiction even more amazing. There is an upcoming scene that has a missing detail. We need to come up with an insult that Natalie uses against her brother when she and he get into a fight. AGAIN: WE ARE DESPERATELY SEEKING A BIG FAT INSULT TO BE APPLIED TO A TEENAGE BROTHER. Please write in your suggestions in the comments section. The winner will be chosen in a week and featured in MY DARKLYNG--if your answer is selected, it'll be like the story is actually winking at you from the screen.
I know this is all a bit much to wrap your head around. Sorry for any confusion--just read the first installment and take it from there. Please please post comments or send us emails telling us how you're finding the series. We can be reached by my website.
And if you find yourself feeling afraid, don't say I didn't warn you!
Before I go onto the review, I just wanted to state that A-kon 21 starts tomorrow. I know several IBWB readers live in Texas and A-kon has activities that appeal to SF/F readers as well as anime and manga fans. This will be my fifth year to attend and my third year as staff. So if you go and see a staff photographer ninja-named "Anastasia," say hello.
By Heidi R. Kling Available June 10 from G.P. Putnam's Sons (Penguin) Review copy
Oddly enough, I read SEA the first time while snow was on the ground. This is odd for two reasons: it doesn't snow often in my part of Texas and SEA is a very summery book. Sienna "Sea" Jones is a former surfer still dealing with the death of her mother, who disappeared in a probably airplane crash. Her best friend Spider may want to be more than friends and her dad wants her to fly halfway around the world to help him with therapy for orphans in post-tsunami Indonesia. She doesn't want to go to Indonesia and she certainly doesn't want to fly to get there.
Her opinion doesn't change immediately, but she begins to connect to the children, particularly troublemaker and leader Desi. Soon the two are sneaking around together. The real stength of SEA is Heidi R. Kling's descriptive prowess. As I mentioned in my interview, she writes compellingly both about Sea's father's work and the country itself. Our interest in disasters tends to end when the news stops covering them. Right now our concern is with the BP oil leak. A few months ago it was Haiti. The portrait of a country recovering is different and compelling.
SEA could be maudlin, trite, or treacly. There are no tragedy Olympics - Sea's issues with her mother's death are treated with respect as are the problems of the Indonesian children. Dealing with the PTSD is what's important. Nor are the Indonesians a faceless mass. Desi, despite the cultural differences, is still a teenager. Sea grows especially close to the girls she lives with. Focusing on relationships instead of issues was a good move on Kling's part.
Of course, so much weight is given to the burgeoning romance of Sea and Desi that some readers might be happy with the ending. I think I did like it. At first I felt like it came out of left field, but I believe Kling made it work. I still think it came half out of left field, but it feels emotionally satisfying. In a story where emotions are as important as they are in SEA, that's important.
SEA isn't a light-hearted summer romance. But it is a summer romance. It's immersive and captivating. I would've liked to have seen more of Sea's life in California in order to better understand the transformations she undergoes during her time in Indonesia, but at the same time feel like if Kling did so she might've messed up something that works. SEA feels whole, despite being such a small snippet of Sea and Desi's lives.
Heidi R. Kling is the debut author of SEA and knows her literature and creative writing - she has a degree in both! She's also a mom and a former costume shop employee. (Authors always have the strangest careers lurking in their backgrounds.) I first read SEA a few months ago and I'm happy I got the chance to speak with Heidi - thanks to Traveling to Teens tours - and share more about this book with ya'll. Come back later today for my review.
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1. In SEA, you write quite compellingly about humanitarian work. Have you been involved with any yourself?
I do what I can, but I have two small kids at home so I haven't left the country to be involved in any aid. We support families in Africa and supported several of real-life tsunami survivors for a couple years after the tsunami and still remain in frequent touch with them. My husband is the awesome one who does the field work. He's been to Indonesia twice, Africa, Haiti, Cambodia--he's a cross-cultural expert in PTSD so I imagined Sienna's dad a lot like my husband would be in 14 years and if I was missing/dead (dreary I know, but it worked for the character!)
2. Your descriptions of Indonesia - the culture as well as the country - are also incredibly vivid. Have you ever been to Indonesia yourself or did you rely totally on research?
Thank you! No, I haven't had the pleasure yet. Like I said, my kids are small and when I wrote SEA I didn't feel comfortable leaving the country without him. I relied on picking my husband's brain and research.
3. SEA has received quite a bit of (deserved) pre-publication buzz. What has been the most exciting thing so far?
Oh, thank you! Well, I'm so happy people are liking it and are interested in the topic. To me, it's such an important and current topic that isn't explored enough. We see all these disasters on TV but hardly ever hear about any follow up--what happens after the news crews are gone? I wanted to explore that with SEA. The most exciting thing by far is talking with early readers who have loved SEA and have resonated with the story. I also love having an excuse to visit NYC and hang out with my author friends. :-)
4. You're a member of the Tenners, which is, of course, a brilliant group. What's the best part about belonging to a group of fellow debut authors? What Tenner releases are you most excited about? (Any 2011 books you're excited about too? It's never too early to start planning to add to Mt. TBR.)
LOL--well, I love debut groups-I think they are so important--it's like a club in high school or something, somewhere you can go and hang out or vent or rejoice or whatever--2011 has great titles too! There are a few I'm looking forward to especially, but I don't want to play favorites. :-)
5. What current authors do you look up too?
John Green who is amazing at both his prose and the way he connects to his audience. I don't think I'd ever try vlogging or will ever get 1 million plus Twitter followers but to see a YA author have this much positive influence in our world is heartwarming.
6. What do you think have been the most influential forces on your writing?
I would say my kids. I wrote SEA when my son was three and I thought about him the whole time I was writing it. Imagining him reading it when he was of age. I did my edits when I was pregnant with my daughter, then again, looked at it through what I imagined would be her eyes one day. I know it's sort of cheesy, but I want them to be impressed and perhaps even touched by my work.
I've got a pretty good line-up for June, including two book giveaways (which I'll not announce yet).
Heidi R. Kling's SEA is making the rounds with Traveling to Teens Tours, and IBWB will be the June 3rd stop.
The next day, June 4th, Lauren Mechling has both special news to share and an opportunity for IBWB readers.
Toward the end of the month, on June 26th, Shannon Delaney will stop by during her Start Your Day with Serial Tour celebrating the release of 13 TO LIFE.
Of course, there will also be several reviews. Hope to see ya'll around!
I am waiting for STAR ISLAND by 
