So I Met a Boy Today . . .

. . . and he lent me a book.

CHASM CITY by Alastair Reynolds

Interview with Deborah Lytton

Deborah Lytton's first novel just came out on March 19. JANE IN BLOOM is, pretty obviously, a coming-of-age story. It's also the first of the Class of 2k9 I'm featuring, but be aware there are many more in that group to come. So let's celebrate Deborah's success in getting published!

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1. Your first book, JANE IN BLOOM, comes out this month. I watched Oscar interviews last night, so I have to steal one of their questions: what is your ratio of excited to terrified? Any other emotions in the mix?

More excited than terrified, I think. I can’t wait to take my little girls to the bookstore and show them my book on the shelf. And I have to admit, there is still a part of me that doesn’t quite believe this is happening. I’ve held the advance copy in my hands, so I know it’s real, but still…

2. Why do you think people will enjoy your novel?

I think a really good read is one that takes you on an emotional journey and leaves you satisfied at the end that the character you have traveled with has ended up in the right place. In this book, I take the reader through so many emotions, and I believe at the end, that Jane is right where she needs to be.

3. In your book, Jane's older sister dies of an eating disorder. What interested you about eating disorders? What kind of research did you do?

I focused on eating disorders because they are so prevalent in our society and the girls (and boys) afflicted are getting younger and younger. I wanted to address this subject for a middle grade audience. I researched the subject by reading first-hand accounts, books on eating disorders and consulted a pediatrician and pediatric nurse practitioner. But as the book is for a younger audience, I kept specific details to a minimum.

4. When did you begin to blossom? Were you an early bloomer or a wallflower?

I truly don’t think I blossomed until I became a mother. That’s when I finally came into my own. I think I was both an early bloomer and a wallflower. As a working child actress, I was mature because I was working on film sets with mostly adults and was expected to know my lines and hit my marks. But at the same time, I was shy with peers. So there is a part of me that is definitely a wallflower.

5. On your 2k9 page there's a recipe for Ethel's famous mac n' cheese. Your recipe calls for breadcrumbs, mustard, and paprika, which surprised me a little. Is the dish a little spicy? What are some of your favorite dishes?

This recipe is actually a variation on my dad’s “famous” mac n’ cheese. He’s been making it for years. It sounds spicier than it tastes—it’s really kid-friendly. I’m big on comfort foods. But my favorite dishes usually involve chocolate. And I love to bake cookies, cakes, cupcakes. If there’s sugar in it, I’m happy.



6. I like the JANE IN BLOOM cover. It's a bright color and the title treatment is easy to read. What did you think when you first saw it?

I’m glad you like it. I like it, too. Jeanine Henderson is the designer. When I first saw it, I was thrilled. I thought the cover completely captured the heart of the story, in color and in theme. It’s really perfect.

7. Do you plan to become a full-time author? What things do you like to do besides write?

My goal is to become a full-time author. It’s a dream come true to be on that path.

I love spending time with my daughters more than anything—we’re usually dancing and singing. My favorite hobby is photography. I’ve been shooting pictures since I was a little girl, and I really enjoy seeing the world through a camera lens. I also love reading and watching movies.

8. What is the most important thing you learned in school? Outside of school?

That is a hard question to answer because there are so many valuable things I learned in school. But the first thing that comes to mind is an incredible English teacher I had in middle school who taught me how to punctuate sentences with rules I use to this day. She was also the first teacher to introduce me to real literature. The most important thing I learned outside of school I learned on film sets—and this was the ability to be creative within a schedule, to deliver a performance. This translates to writing, as writers have so many deadlines to meet, and we have to deliver.

9. How do people react when you tell them you have a book coming out?

People are really excited to hear about the book. They want to know where they can buy it and what it’s about. They are really supportive.

10. With all the flower metaphors in your blurb and the rose on the cover, do you have a favorite kind of flower? Why?

I love daisies. When you look at a daisy, it smiles back at you. What could be better than that?

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So what about ya'll? Are you wallflowers or bloomed? I think I'm a bloomed, but with a wallflower sort of personality.

And one very lucky person will get a signed copy, hot off the presses, of JANE IN BLOOM. You know the drill: follow the rules.

Interview with S.G. Browne

S.G. Browne is the author of the new release BREATHERS, which I first heard about from Amanda Ashby. I recommend checking out the excerpt on his website because the framing story begins with quite a scene. I've enjoyed what I've read of the book so far. It's gory, socially aware, and romantic. You can also check out Scott's MySpace or el jay.

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1. Your novel BREATHERS is a zombie romantic comedy. What caused you to write a zom-rom-com?

Well, I always thought romance and zombies was a natural fit. The rotting of flesh, the smell of hydrogen sulfide, sheets of skin peeling off. Why should vampires have all the fun? Plus I wanted to explore the age-old question: Is it necrophilia if you’re both dead?

2. Which are you more afraid of: the zombie apocalypse or the beespider apocalypse? (It would fly and have eight legs - legitimately scary.)

The beespider apocalypse. I love bees. But spiders creep me out. So do snakes, needles, close-talkers, children with runny noses, paraplegic mannequins, and the woman wearing the cosmetic tool belt at Macy’s.

3. What is it like to write the in-character blog Andy's Diary?

Blogging as Andy is a bit of a challenge. When I wrote BREATHERS I channeled Andy’s character, so it’s kind of tough to channel him a couple of times a week when I’m working on something else and inhabiting another character’s skin. Or when I’m distracted by ice cream. This happens frequently.



4. I really like the BREATHERS cover - it reminds me of silver screen romance. Do you like it? What did you think when you first saw it? Was the title your suggestion or your editor's?
I came up with the title while on vacation in Kauai in 2003, though my editor suggested a reading line to clarify it was about zombies. We ended up using the title of the original short story, which I’d written in 2001. So it was very cosmically circular. When I first saw the cover, there weren’t any skulls and the inside of the heart was pink and the title was a florid, looping, cream-colored script. Not exactly what I’d envisioned for a dark comedy. But the creative team at Broadway Books is great and they listened to my suggestions and came up with this. Everyone was happier. I love the cover.

5. What are some novels you're looking forward too? What are some of your favorite books and movies?

Pygmy by Chuck Palahniuk. He’s my favorite author, along with Christopher Moore. And I have The Black Dahlia by James Ellroy on my TBR list. Favorite books include Lullaby by Palahniuk, Lamb by Christopher Moore, and STIFF: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach. I could throw in Lord of the Flies and The Great Gatsby to add some literary depth, but I wrote a book about zombies. Movies? Fight Club, Being John Malkovich, and I Heart Huckabees. Really, anything by Charlie Kaufman, Wes Anderson, the Coen Brothers, and David Fincher.

6. A friend has been bitten by a zombie. Do you give them the benefit of a doubt or shoot first and ask questions later? Did you check that the gun was loaded?

No benefit of the doubt. I’ve seen enough Hollywood propaganda to know that it’s only a matter of time before my friend starts drooling and I’m on the menu. But since I’ve never fired a gun or even held a real one in my hands, I probably wouldn’t remember to check if it was loaded. So I’ve been practicing my screams for when I get eaten alive.

7. What is your weirdest hobby? Strangest skill that could be considered practical?

Weirdest hobby? I put movie quotes on my iTunes shuffle. Gene Wilder just turned down Cloris Leachman for some warm milk and Ovaltine in Young Frankenstein before kicking in to “Play That Funky Music” by Wild Cherry. My strangest practical skill? Like most men, I can recite movie lines to cover up for the fact that I don’t know what I’m talking about. Or when I want to avoid emotional intimacy.

8. So, you write. But what else do you do? What don't you do that you'd really like to do?

I golf. I bike. I do tai chi, which is actually a martial art, in spite of the fact that most people think it’s just a bunch of elderly Asian people in the park doing synchronized calisthenics in slow motion. But what I’d really like to do is learn how to play a musical instrument. It’s the exhibitionist in me.

9. What is the greatest snack food? Why?

White cheddar Cheez-Its. They’re the crack of snack foods. Does that count as “Why?”

10. How would you convince people to read BREATHERS, without referencing the blurb?

It’s Fight Club meets Shaun of the Dead, only with the zombies as the good guys. Oh, and the necrophilia thing.

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Remember the rules? If you don't, you'll want to refresh yourself on them. I'm giving away two copies of BREATHERS, courtesy of Random House. The book is seriously cool, so you'll want to give it a chance.

Also, Scott clearly has good taste in books and movies. Isn't that reason enough to give his book a try?

Mini-March Interview with Alyce

Alyce writes At Home With Books. The first time I found her blog I was rather amused by the similar name. (And look! Another March baby.) She recently gave me a blog award, so I'll have to figure out who I'm passing that on to.

1. When is your birthday?

March 4th

2. When did you start your blog?

August 2008

3. What's your favorite month and why?

May - because the weather is warm and perfect.

4. What do you like about March?

My birthday and my husband's birthday are in March, so that is always fun. Also, the weather starts to warm up a tiny bit.

5. What March book release are you most excited about?

I was very excited to read Silent on the Moor by Deanna Raybourn. I just finished reading my advance copy a few days ago.

(I liked SILENT ON THE MOOR too.)

Mini-March Interview with V Bored

The next responder to my survey was another new blogger, V Bored of V Blase. She hastn't posted yet this month, so I hope her blog isn't dead already.

1. When is your birthday?

May 15. I will not tell you the year, though, for privacy reasons.

2. When did you start your blog?

According to blogger, I started it on January 2009.

3. What is your favorite month and why?

My favorite month is May. One, because my birthday is nestled in that month and two because the word May is somewhere in my true full name.

4. What do you like about March?

To be honest, nothing. I prefer rain and wine...er...winter, myself. March is just one step next to spring and summer, which I don't dread but really dislike. The only thing I like about March, if there is such a thing, is that it is one month closer to summer vacation.

5. What March book release are you most excited about?

I haven't a clue.

Interview with Beth Kephart

Wendy Toliver was on vacation last week, so ya'll will have to wait for her guest blog. Instead I bring you the amazing Beth Kephart, the author of UNDERCOVER, HOUSE OF DANCE, and more. Back in September, she did an interview with me. It was fun to turn the tables! And since Beth is uber-nice I know she'll be cool about me shifting her interview up a few days. And if the weather where you live is anything like mine, it's rainy and cold and absolutely perfect for curling up with books like Beth's.

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1. You've got a number of books coming out, but you still find time to blog. But it makes me wonder: do you think you'll ever publish something with your poetry or photos?

Oh, what a great first question you ask. I would love nothing more than to publish my poetry, with photos. My photos have appeared in my books from time to time—into the memoir, Still Love in Strange Places, for example, are wedged my images of El Salvador, and the plan is to have some of my Juarez photography incorporated into the jacket of the forthcoming The Heart is not a Size. But one of the primary reasons I started this blog was to “publish,” so to speak, a collage of my poems and photos. To put both in one place, as often as I can, and without limits.

2. UNDERCOVER, which I loved, is coming out in paperback with extras, just to be mean to those of us with the hardcover. (Not really.) How much input did you get in choosing the extras? i know there's often a reading guide and message from the author, but I've always wondered where the reading guides come from.

Wait. All of your questions are exquisite! But I digress.

Jill Santopolo, my editor, gave me utter freedom when it came to these extras. And so I decided that what I wanted to do was to think ahead in Elisa Cantor’s life, to imagine how things had played out for her, and to briefly capture her subsequent time at high school in a series of new poems. And that is what these extras are. No reading guide. No instructions on how to read the book. Just a suggestion about the still-lived life of a character I can’t let go of. And poetry. Published. In a book.

3. UNDERCOVER features an ice-skater. HOUSE OF DANCE a ballroom dancer. What attracts you to forms of dance? Does the protagonist of NOTHING BUT GHOSTS have a connection to the world of dance?

Katie D’Amore, the heroine of Nothing but Ghosts, does not dance, but there are images that float toward and away from her, just as music floats in and out of me at all times. Writing is the way I sing. It is the way I dance. It is the way I love the world. My characters spring from me, and so they are music bound.

4. I loved your vlog thanking the team behind NOTHING BUT GHOSTS because I enjoy learning about what it takes to polish a novel. What are the most amazing things you've discovered while reading through your manuscript covered in blue pencil?

Gosh, well. The answer to that question could constitute an entire book unto itself. I have a tendency to crumple up my adjectives in a way that leaves Renee, my copy editor, asking: “Would that be a white table with wheels on it? Or a table with white wheels?” With each book I think I get better at self-induced precision. Renee did not have to sharpen too many blue pencils for the forthcoming The Heart is not a Size. In fact, I loved her notes in the margins of that book. I’d be writing about a river in Mexico, for example. Her blue pencil would sing out, “If you like that river, you should see..... “ And then she’d give me some other slice of the world. It made me smile.

5. Have you written the novel you've always wanted to right or are you still trying to find it in you?

Nothing but Ghosts has a mystery at its heart, and that was new and exciting terrain for me (and one of the reasons Renee needed many blue pencils). It found me; I tried my best to answer to the challenge. The Heart is not a Size deals with issues—panic disorder and teen anorexia—that I never thought I would have the courage to face on the page, and it takes readers to a place—a squatters’ village in Juarez—that matters to me deeply, that inspired and moved me. For the past five years I’ve been at work on a novel that takes place in Philadelphia in 1876. It’s a new kind of book for me—an historical novel—and I loved the challenge of sinking deeply within it, and of writing with a brand-new voice. I loved writing it, as I have loved writing all my books. Now I’m at work on a novel that takes place on a cortijo in Seville—a setting with which I worked for years, but never to my complete satisfaction. Something new is happening here, again. Something that is, to me, thrilling as process.

(I should note that both the historical novel and the Seville novel are works in progress, without, as yet, an official home.)

The point is that I am always and forever journeying out toward the breaking point of what I can, at the moment in my career, achieve. Perhaps someday I’ll look back and say, That was the novel that I wanted to write, in some definitive way. But each time out I’m writing to the best of me, I’m writing what finds me and what I have the courage to embrace. I’m going the distance. I’m seeing where it takes me.

6. You have a close relationship with your son.. What sort of books do ya'll share? Is there any book you can't believe he doesn't like?

Oh yes, I love my son. And we are completely and utterly different in our tastes. He has loved the books that I’ve shared with him—A Separate Peace, When the Emperor was Divine, a number of short stories by Flannery O’Connor and Faulkner, for example. But he’s much happier reading books with faster-paced plots and more “excitement,” as he puts it. He has decided to minor in creative writing at college. I watch; I wait; he teaches me. I’ll be teaching at the University of Pennsylvania in the fall—the advanced nonfiction workshop. One of the reasons that I accepted that honor was so that I might stretch as a teacher just as my son is stretching as a student.

7. What kind of camera do you use? Lens? Do you ever play around with filters? Have any feeling about film versus digital?

I use a Sony, and it’s a digital, and it allows me to make mistakes, as all digitals do. I read about photography all the time, and I try to absorb some few elements of what I’ve read. Right now I’m playing around with wide angle lenses and shutter speeds. I’ve played around with the macro lens. I can’t get enough of it all.

Film is more noble, I think. Film requires one to be good every single time out. I’m not that good yet.

8. I haven't heard much about your short story "The Longest Distance" coming soon in the anthology NO SUCH THING AS THE REAL WORLD. What is it about?

This is about a young woman trying to survive her best friend’s unforeseen suicide. It was inspired in part by the tragic events that took place in my own home town a few years ago.

9. Briefly describe your favorite birthday celebration.

My mother threw me a sweet sixteen surprise party that will always rank as the world’s greatest unexpected delight, because somehow or another, she got the great Jim Clancy, the high school star, to show up in my very own basement. Who knows how she did that, but I’ll never forget it.

10. If you had the chance to do anything you wanted, no constraints, no consequences, what would you do?

I’d live in a place that tested me for a few months, that every day brought something new and inexplicable. And then I’d bring that world back home, in words and in pictures. And I would sleep in late every now and then. And someone else would cook the dinners.

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Beth is offering a really cool prize: the last ARC of NOTHING BUT GHOSTS - signed. No really, they randomly found two ARCs when they thought all of them were gone. (Being the Birthday Girl, I snatched one.) Plus, there have been changes made so you'll be able to compare the ARC to the final. Evolution at it's finest.

Follow the rules darlings. And yes, saying Beth is totally awesome is on topic. But that goes without saying, right?

Mini-March Interview with Vania and Sarah

Vania and Sarah of the very new Reverie Media are today's guests. They're off to a good start so let's hope they keep it up!

1. When is your birthday?

Well mine (Vania's) is Oct 20 and Sarah's Aug 9

2. When did you start your blog?

A few weeks ago. And we're so excited. We have so many cool things planned and we've got two people working ont his. You know what they say, "two minds are better than one." :)

3. What's your favorite month and why?

April and September it's still warm, hot even but it's not ridiculously humid. Here in GA things can get pretty wet.

4. What do you like about March?

Here in GA it start warming up and the minld weather is perfect here and spring really starts blooming. Everyone loves spring....minus the allergies though.

5. What March book release are you most excited about?

I know both Sarah and I are looking forward to "City of Glass" and we're itching to read it and see how the trilogy pans out.

Books Read in 2009 (Week Ten)

Week Ten



The Japanese Family System in Transition: A Sociological Analysis of Family Change in Postwar Japan by Ochiai Emiko (textbook)



The Weight of the Yen: How Denial Imperils America's Future and Ruins an Alliance by R. Taggart Murphy (textbook)

Mini-March Interview with Donna

Donna writes Bites, a blog that rates books in . . . well . . . bites. (It makes me want to develop a rating system.)

1. When is your birthday?

My birthday is May 5th, 1983. Child of the 80s. I don't remember wearing side ponytails but I could be wrong. But I did wear legwarmers but I had a legitimate excuse! I was a gymnast.

2. When did you start your blog?

This blog I started only towards the end of January. I've had my writing blog for over a year now and I reviewed books there as I read them. After reading up on YA book blogs, I decided to open up my own and shift all those reviews over to this one. That way I can still review books and be a part of two different communities.

3. What's your favorite month and why?

My favorite month would have to be August because late summer is my favorite part of the year. The atmosphere, the weather, it all just brings the mood together. I wish my own little world could exist forever in late August weather. And usually, by then, the humidity's gone so I don't have to walk sideways through a door to appease my hair.

4. What do you like about March?

March? Um, well, it's really the last month I have before my spring allergies start to kick in so I can revel in that. We also don't get much snow in March which is always a plus.

5. What March book release are you most excited about?

You are So Undead to Me and Zombie Queen of Newbury High are on my TBR list. Night of the Living Lawn Ornaments looks pretty freakin' cute too. And Wintergirls is buzzing in my ear as well as The Forest of Hands and Teeth.

Katherine Center: Fellow March Birthday Celebratee

Like my title pun? Or, as is more likely, hate it?
Katherine Center’s second novel, EVERYONE IS BEAUTIFUL, is featured in the March issue of Redbook. Kirkus Reviews likens it to the 1950s motherhood classic PLEASE DON'T EAT THE DAISES, and says, “Center’s breezy style invites the reader to commiserate, laughing all the way.” Booklist calls it “a superbly written novel filled with unique and resonant characters.” Katherine’s first novel, THE BRIGHT SIDE OF DISASTER, was featured in People Magazine, USA Today, Vanity Fair, the Houston Chronicle, and the Dallas Morning News, among others. BookPage named Katherine one of seven new writers to watch, and the paperback of BRIGHT SIDE was a Breakout Title at Target. Katherine recently published an essay in Real Simple Family and has another forthcoming in BECAUSE I LOVE HER: 34 Women Writers on the Mother-Daughter Bond this April. She has just turned in her third novel, GET LUCKY, and is starting on a fourth. She lives in Houston, Texas, with her husband and two young children.

You can read my review of EVERYONE IS BEAUTIFUL - the post also contains the book trailer.

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I am a March baby, too. And I just had my birthday. I turned 37, and now I am old. Boom. Just like that.

I knew it was coming: 37. Though I wasn’t thinking about it too much—or even seeing it as a Big Birthday, the way 40 will be. It was just another birthday, and, like with many things in life—a due date, say, or a book coming out—it snuck up on me.

I’ve always been struck at how not-at-all different you are when your birthday finally arrives after all that buildup. It’s almost a letdown. You wake up, and you’re still just you. Same old, same old.

But this year, washing my face just before I woke my kids for school, I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror and saw wrinkles. Deep, significant, there-to-stay wrinkles. And I swear they weren’t there the night before.

And so it was really lucky for me that I happen to be a big fan of wrinkles. I’ve even joined the Bring Back Wrinkles group on Facebook.

I guess the downside of wrinkles is that they remind you you’re not young anymore. But guess what? I already knew that.

And I’m not even sure that I would want to be young again, frankly. As fun as it was.

I’m on a book tour this week, and one of my stops has taken me to a little town north of Seattle where one of my best friends from college lives. Last time I saw her was at my wedding. Nine years ago.

She’s hanging out with me right now at a hotel room, working on her computer just like I am working on mine. We both have a lot going on, and it’s pretty quiet in here, except for the typing. But every few minutes, one of us will pipe up and say, “Remember when we got obsessed with dominos and couldn’t stop playing?” Or, “Remember when we found that train-car diner in Maine?” Or “Remember that time we played that drinking game watching When Harry Met Sally?”

A lot has changed since then: I’ve had two children and written two books. She’s opened the restaurant she always dreamed of. We are, in fact, living exactly the lives we hoped for.

And so I’m not going to complain about the wrinkles. Or that I’m not twenty-two anymore. Or that life carries you away from people and places you loved. Or that the joys of life have to be spaced out over time. You can’t have everything all at once. That’s what memories are for. And also, gratitude: You loved them once. You really did love them. And that just has to be enough.

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Lanie Coates’s life is spinning out of control. She’s piled everything she owns into a U-Haul and driven with her husband, Peter, and their three little boys from their cozy Texas home to a multiflight walkup in the Northeast. She’s left behind family, friends, and a comfortable life–all so her husband can realize his dream of becoming a professional musician. But somewhere in the eye of her personal hurricane, it hits Lanie that she once had dreams too. If only she could remember what they were.

These days, Lanie always seems to rank herself dead last–and when another mom accidentally criticizes her appearance, it’s the final straw. Fifteen years, three babies, and more pounds than she’s willing to count since the day she said “I do,” Lanie longs desperately to feel like her old self again. It’s time to rise up, fish her moxie out of the diaper pail, and find the woman she was before motherhood capsized her entire existence.

Lanie sets change in motion–joining a gym, signing up for photography classes, and finding a new best friend. But she also creates waves that come to threaten her whole life. In the end, Lanie must figure out once and for all how to find herself without losing everything else in the process.

Katherine Center’s EVERYONE IS BEAUTIFUL is a hugely entertaining, poignant, and charming new novel about what happens after happily ever after: how a woman learns to fall in love with her husband–and her entire life–all over again.

Book tour by Pump Up Your Book Promotion.



I can't believe how many March babies I'm finding. We're popping out of the snow . . . like . . . like daisies! And now I want to watch Mulan.

Mini-March Interview with Hope

Someone was at a show today and didn't notice this never posted . . .

Hope is the eponymous writer of Hope's Bookshelf. She's got several cool interviews this month (including one with Neesha S. Meminger), so be sure to check her out.

1. When is your birthday?

August 22nd.

2. When did you start your blog?

February 10, 2008

3. What's your favorite month and why?

August. It's summer, it's warm, hay season is OVER (aka no more working in the fields to help my dad!), my birthday, and we always go to our property in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan for their County Fair, which is, like, my favorite thing EVER. :)

4. What do you like about March?

Duh, March is Reading Month! lol. Well, I like that it starts to get warm here, finally!

5. What March book release are you most excited about?

Ooh... hm. There's too many amazing looking March releases, such as The King's Rose, The Forest of Hands and Teeth, Going Too Far, Stargazer, Say the Word, and Zombie Queen of Newbury High, among a bunch of others that look really good!

Hell Yes, A.S. King Still Celebrates her Birthday

I'm gonna keep this simple: A. S. King is the author of THE DUST OF 100 DOGS, a Spring 2009 Indie Next Pick for Teens, and a number of short stories. She can be found at her blog, where she's currently running an eyeball contest. And guess what? Amy's a March baby too. So listen to someone who's a year older and a year wiser.

Hell Yes, I Still Celebrate my Birthday
by A.S. King

You know, the older I get, the more I hear people say, “I don’t celebrate my birthday anymore.” They wave it off like it’s any old day of the year, and roll their eyes. “Sheesh!” they say, “I’m closer to dead than I am to born, so why celebrate?” Uh—isn’t that even more of a reason to party down? In our house, we try to take the day off, not answer the business phone, and stay in our pajamas as long as we can. Join us! Mix up your beverage of choice (coffee for me, thanks) put on a hat, and get comfortable. Because today I turn 39.

*sing birthday song here.*

Like most people, I have certain birthday memories, helped along by photographs, which is what I’d like to share with you today. I owe thanks to my parents, their Minolta & Kodachrome for these mini visual time machines.

First off, I have a news flash. I was once cute. This picture is from my second birthday. Seriously. Look at how cute I was. That’s probably a German Chocolate Cake w/ the proper coconut icing. Homemade, of course. My favorite. This cake made an appearance pretty much every single March 10^th since I was born.


My 5^th birthday in 1975, I got a xylophone. It is the birthday that sticks out the strongest in my memory. This is the only picture I have of the xylophone. The hands holding the mallets are my mother’s—though when she goes musical, which is she is known to do, we call her Janine. Go Janine!


Then, like all children, I started to grow out of my cuteness. I feel that hitting this not-so-cute-anymore stage smack at the end of the 1970s was a real obstacle. Seriously. Look what it did to me, here, on my 8^th birthday in 1978. NG, man. Not. Good.


This next picture is a picture of my 19^th birthday. It was my first college birthday & yes, that is a cigarette in my hand. What’s in the cup is anyone’s guess, but I’m betting it’s not Ovaltine. Let me please take this opportunity to remind you—smoking is an awful, horrible and stupid curse, and drinking isn’t much better. Also, choosing eyewear requires a modicum of sanity, which, in 1989, it seems I did not possess.



Here ends my journey to the planet of past birthdays.

I have a year from today to enjoy my last age that begins with a 3, and then, I will turn 40 gracefully. Not so bad at all. My eyewear has improved, I’ve quit smoking, I rarely drink, and I manage to exercise when I can. I feel young. I’m not sure if I feel younger than 39 or what 39 is supposed to feel like, but I’m still on a quest to learn things, and to not get out of bed in the morning. So, I guess really, I’m still this kid:

Even though I look like this now.


Thanks so much for having me to your party, Liviania! Happy birthday to you and to me and to the other Marchlings out there and happy blog birthday, too!

Now, who’s up for refilling the birthday girl's coffee?

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As I just bought coffee, I'm happy to give Amy some. I haven't been able to read my copy of DUST OF 100 DOGS yet, so I lent it to someone in penance. She told me it's "really awesome." No lie, her verbal review used awesome about twenty times.

So let's wish A.S. King a happy birthday! (And don't forget to enter Steph/Reviewer X's gargantuan contest.)

Mini-March Interview with Sophie

The over-achieving Sophie blogs at Mrs. Magoo Reads. But hey, it's good to be an over-achiever. I belive there's still time to win her contest for a copy of YOU'RE AMAZING by Claire Mysko.

1. When is your birthday?

At the end of September, the 27th.

2. When did you start your blog?

I started a month before my 12th birthday. I made my first post on August 16, 2007.

3. What's your favorite month and why?

September, of course, because it's my birthday! :D

4. What do you like about March?

That's when my sister's birthday is.

5. What March book release are you most excited about?

Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson. I absolutely loved Speak so hopefully Wintergirls will be just as good!

20 Things About 20-Year-Old Cherry Cheva

Jennifer Banash had to be hospitalized because her concussion got worse, so we're having a little change in schedule. So here's Cherry Cheva, the author of SHE'S SO MONEY and a Family Guy writer. She also wrote the Family Guy novel IT TAKES A VILLAGE IDIOT, AND I MARRIED HIM with Alex Borstein.

Before anyone asks: I really did give authors the option to write about something other than their 20s. I guess it's just a good time of life to write about, and who could complain when the guest blogs are this entertaining? (And hey - A.S. King, tomorrow's guest, didn't write about her 20s.)

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Livi’s turning 20! So, for my guest blog, I’m about to relate 20 facts about when I was 20. Okay, here goes!

1. It was kind of a long time ago. Yikes.
2. I mean, cellphones existed, but I didn’t have one yet.
3. I also didn’t have a fake ID.
4. This actually wasn’t a big deal, because my friend was a bouncer at the bar we usually went to.
5. (One time he bounced Claire Danes because she didn’t have a fake ID either and he didn’t recognize her.)
6. At age 20 I didn’t know I wanted to be a writer yet.
7. Correction—I did know, sort of, but I didn’t think it was possible. I mean, people getting paid to make stuff up? Hello! It’s madness! MADNESS!
8. My parents thought the same thing. Which is why they kept trying to get me to be a doctor.
9. There was no way in hell I was going to be a doctor.
10. Hence, I took the LSATs and started filling out a bunch of law school applications instead.
11. I knew this wasn’t the best idea in the world but I did it anyway. (It actually turned out okay so if I had to do it again I actually might, but boy oh boy is law school expensive.)
12. I had much shorter hair (about chin-length) than I do today (several inches below shoulder-length). What the hell was I thinking?
13. I was wearing flannel shirts that I still wear today, so maybe I was thinking something right. Or, depending on how you feel about flannel, something equally as wrong as I currently think.
14. I had no idea how to pursue a writing career, so I researched it on the internet and figured out that to get into TV writing, I really had to move to LA.
15. Unfortunately, I didn’t know anyone in LA, so I nixed this idea. (For the time being.) (I did move there eventually.) (Still not knowing anyone.)
16. I watched a lot of TV. (This is still true.)
17. I ran a lot. (This is no longer true.)
18. I was really in a short-story reading phase as opposed to a novel reading phase, for whatever reason.
19. I’m pretty sure the word “blog” didn’t exist yet.
20. I’m glad it does now! OK I know that last one has nothing to do with when I was 20 so I totally cheated but whatever! :) Happy Birthday Liviania!

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As I utterly love flannel and wear shirts I stole from my dad and sister, I think Cherry was doing something right. As for number 17 - I told ya'll exercise popped up quite a bit. (At least, I think I did.)



Either way, Cherry's offering a copy of the SHE'S SO MONEY paperback, which contains a preview of her 2009 release DUPLIKATE. So obey the rules and you might win something super fun. (Also, there's cool buttons on the rules post you can use to link back to the blogiversary.)

Mini-March Interview with Mari

Mari of MariReads has been an In Bed With Books visitor since August. (Well, that's the first time I remember her commenting.) As the universe moves in coincidental ways, she nominated me for an "I <3 Your Blog" award on the same day her interview came up. I've already received this one so I'm not awarding it again, but I want to thank her. I love people telling me they like love my blog.

And here's the interview:

1. When is your birthday?

December 17th, a week before Christmas Eve.

2. When did you start your blog?

I started my blog in July of 2008.. (I am very new at this.)

3. What's your favorite month and why?

December. Why? Well, it's finally cold enough to wear all my hand knits. I also get 2 weeks off for winter holidays. Christmas is my favorite holiday and it's also my birthday month. :)

4. What do you like about March?

Spring Break! Flowers blooming. Cool, sunny days. It is right before the dreadful summer heat of Texas.

5. What March book release are you most excited about?

There are always books I want. How can I pick just one? :)

This is one I am definitely looking forward to:

Hunted (House of Night, Book 5)
P. C. Cast and Kristin Cast

Mini-March Interview with B

B, or Brooke, used to post her reviews on MySpace but has moved her operations to Brooke Reviews. Her current contest will interest paranormal book lovers.

1. When is your birthday?

June 22, 82

2. When did you start your blog?

February 19, 2008 :D

3. What's your favorite month and why?

My favorite month is May, it's my anniversary month, and there is Memorial Day weekend, and beach parties. :)

4. What do you like about March?

I like March because it means winter is almost over! We don't get much of a winter in Florida, but I'm always ready to be done with it.

5. What March book release are you most excited about?

City of Glass (Mortal Instruments, book 3) by Cassandra Clare

Blog Awards!

So, forever and a day ago Amber bestowed me with the Premio Dardos award. I was quite honored, but intimidated by the number of blogs I needed to nominate.



Premio Dardos means ‘prize darts’ in Italian and it is given for recognition of cultural, ethical, literary, and personal values transmitted in the form of creative and original writing.

The rules are:

1) Accept the award by posting it on your blog along with the name of the person that has granted the award and a link to his/her blog.

2) Pass the award to another 15 blogs that are worthy of this acknowledgement, remembering to contact each of them to let them know they have been selected for this award.

I nominate:

1. Taren of The Chick Manifesto

2. I Heart Daily

3. Stephanie Kuehnert of Life, Words, & Rock 'n' Roll

4. Jocelyn of Teen Book Review

5. Beth Kephart

6. Little Willow of Bildungsroman

7. My Favorite Author

8. Maggie Stiefvater

9. Thao of Serene Hours

10. Liv of Liv's Book Reviews

11. Diana Peterfreund

12. Diana Dang of Stop, Drop, and Read!

13. Jennifer Lynn Barnes

14. Adele of Persnickety Snark

15. Jaye Wells

Just now, the ladies at My Favorite Author gifted me with a Your Blog is Fabulous! award. So sweet of them!



The rules are:

1) List five things you are obsessed with.

2) Nominate five blogs you think are fabulous.

Five things I am obsessed with:

1. Rupaul's Drag Race. This show is absolutely terrible, but a friend got me hooked on it. (Other shows I watch: Heroes, Chuck, and Dollhouse. To think I was completely weaned from TV a year ago.)

2. Colored socks. I intensely dislike white sock and don't know why they're so popular. My mom bought be several packs of colorful socks this Christmas to make me happy.

3. My upcoming critique. I'm doing Creative Writing this semester and we're currently critiquing the first full stories people turned in. My turn is Tuesday and I'm excited to hear what people have to say. (What was it about? Opera spies.)

4. Books. Like ya'll didn't know that. But this is my favorite season - a lot of series I enjoy have books out from February-April. It makes me wriggle.

5. Make-up. I almost put music, then decided ya'll wanted something more interesting. I rarely wear make-up but I love doing it for other people and coming up with interesting faces for myself.

I nominate:

1. Lenore of Presenting Lenore

2. The Aussie YA Alliance

3. Serena of Savvy Verse and Wit

4. Alea of Pop Culture Junkie

5. Em of Em's Bookshelf

Interview with Lynn Weingarten

Lynn Weingarten is the author of WHEREVER NINA LIES, which came out from Scholastic last month. You can also find her at her MySpace - and an author this exciting ought to have more friends. Before writing WHEREVER NINA LIES, she worked for Alloy Entertainment.

Isn't the single eye visible on her book's cover arresting?

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1. Your book flap lists jobs you've previously held, including book editor and counter girl at a bakery in Ireland. What was your favorite job and why?

I've liked something about all of my previous jobs, however being a book editor was probably my favorite. It was very exciting to get to work on books and then get to see them in actual book stores and I really loved the people I worked with. That said, I will never forget my first job which was working at a coffee bar when I was 15. I enjoyed pretty much everything about it, up to and including that whenever a cookie broke, we got to eat it. Also, working in Ireland was ridiculously fun. I got to use an electric bread slicing machine and got to take stale bread and feed it to the ducks by the river.

2. Do you plan to be a full time author or to continue holding another job?

I'm actually writing full-time right now. I love it , however I wouldn't rule out my getting a full-time job at some point in the future.

3. My sister ran away (briefly) when I was home. I'll never forget trying to call my parents and tell them she was gone. Since then I've been drawn to books involving runaways. Do you have any personal experience with runaways?

Well I'm very glad your sister came back and is okay! I had a couple friends who ran away during high school. They were identical twin brothers. They ended up being fine, although they were gone for a while and it was definitely scary. The summer I was turning 17 I flew from New York (where me and my runaway friends grew up) to San Francisco to visit my sister. While I was there I actually bumped into one of my runaway friends at Buena Vista Park. My friend gone for a couple months at that point and so seeing him standing there right in front of me, sunburned and barefoot wearing a Snoopy T-shirt, was one of the strangest moments of my life. In the end, he and his brother both came back home and were fine. They were very lucky.



4. How did you decide on the title? Did you have any input on the cover?

Actually someone at Scholastic came up with the title Wherever Nina Lies. We all really liked it and ended up using it for the book. We went back and forth on a lot of different titles before deciding on that one. Two other ones I liked were: Good Girl Gone and Little Red Secrets. (Although some people thought the second title made it sound like a story about girls getting their periods. Ha ha).

As for the cover: I did get to have some input. One day I was looking through a stock photo website online looking for some cover ideas (just for fun, not because anyone had asked me to or anything). I came across a few photos that I thought were cool looking so I sent some of them to my editor. My editor really liked one of a girl holding her finger up to her lips, and so did the people at their Art Department. In the end, Scholastic decided to have a photo shoot and take a picture of a model doing the same pose as the girl in the stock photo.


5. If you could spend time with one fictional character, who would it be? Any fictional characters you would run away from if they suddenly became real?

Hmm, this is a very tough question. Off the top of my head I'm going to say Harry Potter. I think I would really like to fly around on a broom and perhaps he would help me with that. That said, there are a ton of characters it'd be fun to hang out with and I'd like to reserve the right to revise my answer later should this ever somehow become possible.

As for characters I'd run from: anyone in any Stephen King novel. I read a lot of those books when I was a kid and know one would be wise to avoid all those people!

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I would love to feed bread to ducks in Ireland. That sounds like an awesome job. But here's what ya'll really care about: I have an ARC of WHEREVER NINA LIES for one commenter. Check out this post for the rules.

Sasha Watson, Age 20

Let's welcome Sasha Watson, the author of VIDALIA IN PARIS. The Compulsive Reader says, "Overall, the Vidalia in Paris captures the beautiful rush of independence, and best of all, the coming of age." Of course, before Sasha was an author she had her own coming of age adventures.

When she invited me to guest blog, Liviania offered a few suggestions for what I might write about. One of these was, "Something you did when you were twenty."

Well, when I was twenty, I took a year off from college and drove around the United States with my best friend Sara, a dog named Napa, and a Ford Econoline van that we called the Big Brown.

Sara and I had met on the first day of high school, and we'd started planning this trip soon after. We'd read On the Road and all of Tom Robbins' novels - Still Life with Woodpecker and Jitterbug Perfume being especially influential. We were sure that, driving around the country, we'd discover the world, ourselves, and the life of truth, beauty, and freedom that the characters in our favorite books seemed to live.

So, after our freshman year, we worked summer jobs to pay for our journey, bought the Big Brown, and hit the road.

We took the northern route west, eating cheese curds in Wisconsin, passing through the Black Hills of South Dakota, and dancing to bluegrass music in Missoula, Montana. Once we hit the West Coast, we slowed our pace, spending lots of time in Washington, Oregon, and California, driving up and down, hanging out in forests, hot springs, and other people's houses. Then, we headed back East, through Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, the South, until finally, we were home in Massachusetts.

The whole trip took about eight months. As it turned out, the life of pure truth, beauty, and freedom we'd imagined was always slightly out of reach, but we saw and did some wonderful things.

When we got home, I sat down with an antique typewriter and all the photographs that Sara had taken, and typed up a 100-page single-spaced account of what we'd done. Which means, I guess, that I also wrote my first book when I was twenty.

Isn't Napa a beautiful dog? (ETA: Photo of 20-year-old Sasha and Napa by Sara Press.) Sasha makes me want to road trip. (A few friends and I half-planned one, but so far nothing's come to fruition . . . )

Sasha is offering a copy of VIDALIA IN PARIS. Wanna win? Read the rules to find out how.

Books Read in 2009 (Week Nine)

Week Nine



Kitty Raises Hell (Kitty Norville, Book Nine) by Carrie Vaughn (review copy)



Vast Fields of Ordinary by Nick Burd (from Robbie, ARC)



Deathwish (Leandros Brothers, Book Four) by Rob Thurman (bought)



Midnight Sins (sequel to Hotter after Midnight) by Cynthia Eden (review copy, ARC)