SOME OF THE PARTS | Sometimes bad things happen, and we are not the same when they are over. For months, Tallie McGovern has been coping with the death of her older brother the only way she knows how: by smiling bravely and pretending that she's okay. She’s managed to fool her friends, her parents, and her teachers so far, yet she can’t even say his name out loud: “N—” is as far as she can go. But when Tallie comes across a letter in the mail, it only takes two words to crack the careful façade she’s built around herself: ORGAN DONOR. Two words that had apparently been checked off on her brother’s driver’s license; two words that her parents knew about—and never confided to her. All at once, everything Tallie thought she understood about her brother’s death feels like a lie. And although a part of her knows he’s gone forever, another part of her wonders if finding the letter might be a sign. That if she can just track down the people on the other end of those two words, it might somehow bring him back. |
Why do you read young adult fiction? I've read that that writers write from the age they feel stuck in or that they still have unfinished business in. Which means, I probably have a lot of issues that need working out leftover from my teens! Also, I really love reading YA as it's so full of awkward and yet character-defining moments.
When and where do you read? I do mostly audiobooks nowadays, which means I read in the car or while I take a walk. What draws you to a book? I'm always looking for diverse fiction. I also love a good sea-faring book, and a little bit of magic. Do you ever reread books? Yes! I think we reread books because of the way they make us feel. When a reader tells me they want to reread my book, I feel like I've succeeding in creating a world in which they want to be a part.
Which YA books have had the most impact on your writing? LA Meyer's BLOODY JACK series -- Meyer was a master of voice. I love anything by Markus Zusak. Which books do you find yourself recommending over and over again? I've been recommending Robin LaFevers' GRAVE MERCY a lot lately; I also loved Yangsze Choo's THE GHOST BRIDE. I love historical and historical fantasy. Stacey Lee is a native of southern California. She graduated from UCLA then got her law degree at UC Davis King Hall. After practicing law in the Silicon Valley for several years, she finally took up the pen because she wanted the perks of being able to nap during the day, and it was easier than moving to Spain. She plays classical piano, raises children, and writes YA fiction. For more information, please visit: staceylee.com
Happy book birthday to WHAT REMAINS and Helene Dunbar!!
I'm so excited to be a part of this launch day celebration! I read (and loved) THESE GENTLE WOUNDS last year, and I've been waiting (and waiting) for Helene's next release—and here it is! And you can enter to win one of two autographed copies of WHAT REMAINS right here. Right now! About the book...
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... two of the things Cal Ryan cares most about--a promising baseball career and Lizzie, one of his best friends--are gone forever. In the hours that follow... ...Cal's damaged heart is replaced. But his life will never be the same. Everyone expects him to pick up the pieces and move on. But Lizzie is gone, and all that remains for Cal is an overwhelming sense that her death was his fault. And a voice in his head that just...won't...stop. Cal thought he and his friends could overcome any obstacle. But grief might be the one exception. And that might take a lifetime to accept... About the author...
About the giveaway...
Helene is offering two signed copies of WHAT REMAINS! The giveaway ends May 22nd at 11:59 PM EST and is open internationally. See details below to enter.
Good luck! Why do you read young adult fiction? In a way, YA “saved me” as a reader. I grew up reading everything I could get my hands on, but at the time there was little that would classify as “YA”. Then I hit college and as an English/Theater major, all of my reading was for class and I just couldn’t get invested in any fiction.  Fast forward many years and, after reading Harry Potter (mostly while sitting in Irish pubs) too many times, I tripped across Melissa Marr’s Wicked Lovely series and it blew my mind that young adult books were pushing the envelope of sexuality and gender roles and sheer depth of character. I was absolutely hooked and never looked back. What YA book are you reading now? I’m currently reading a non-YA autobiography (Stephen Fry), but here are the books I have lined up waiting for me: · Simon and the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli · The Start of Me and You by Emery Lord · A Darker Shade of Magic by Victoria Schwab When and where do you read? I work two part time jobs and have a husband and a daughter so what little free time I have, I try to use for writing. That being said, I always read before bed. It both quiets my brain and helps me to brainstorm my own work. Other than that, it’s really stolen moments. I always have my kindle with me just in case. What draws you to a book? If I’m in a bookstore, I definitely am drawn in by covers and then give the blurb a try. If that works, I’ll read the first couple of pages. Otherwise, I’m forever downloading free samples onto my kindle and sorting them into “buy/borrow” categories. I have a lot of books that I’ve been carting around through two international moves, so I’m very selective about what I acquire as a physical book as opposed to electronic. Do you ever reread books? All the time! When I truly love a book, I find that on my first read I’m racing through it find out what happens. Then, I read again to study the actual words. Sometimes, I also reread a book immediately because I don’t want to leave the world and can’t imagine reading anything else. Which YA books has had the most impact on your writing? This is such a difficult question for me. Obviously, as I mentioned, Melissa Marr’s Ink Exchange really opened my eyes to what was possible. Maggie Steifvater’s Shiver really nailed home that it was possible to be poetic while telling a good story. There are many books that I’ve actually studied just to see how authors I love handled certain conflicts or emotion or scenes. I don’t have a very visual view of the world overall, so that’s something I’ve really had to try to learn (and continue to try to learn).
Which books do you find yourself recommending over and over again? Favorite lists are so difficult. But books that I fell in love with immediately and still bash people over the head with, include: TEETH by Hannah Moskowitz, BOY TOY by Barry Lyga, THE DREAM THEIVES by Maggie Steifvater, DON’T LET ME GO by J.H. Trumble, THE MARBURY LENS by Andrew Smith, and EVERY YOU, EVERY ME by David Levithan, which I think is the most underrated of his books. Helene Dunbar is the author of THESE GENTLE WOUNDS (Flux, 2014) and WHAT REMAINS (Flux, 2015). Over the years, she's worked as a drama critic, journalist, and marketing manager, and has written on topics as diverse as Irish music, court cases, theater, and Native American Indian tribes. She lives in Nashville with her husband and daughter, and exists on a steady diet of readers' tears.
For more information, visit Helene at: helendunbar.com Enter HERE for a chance to win one of two signed copies of WHAT REMAINS! The giveaway is open internationally thru May 22, 2015.
Why do you read young adult fiction? Why not? : ) Young adults are interesting, funny, funky people, and I like learning what makes them tick. They're some of my favorite people to talk to. I love learning about their identity negotiations. What YA book are you reading now? I don't get to read much during the school year, because I'm a college teacher--I read what I'm going to teach, and not much else for pleasure. The last YA I read was Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, because I'm teaching a Harry Potter class this semester (how lucky am I, to read Harry Potter for my homework??!!). I always have lots of contemporary YA on my TBR pile, most specifically GLORY O'BRIEN'S HISTORY OF THE FUTURE (A.S. King--though she's contemporary YA with a twist) and GUY IN REAL LIFE (S. Brezenoff), as well as I'LL GIVE YOU THE SUN (J. Nelson).
When and where do you read? I read whenever and wherever I can. Any time, any place! I prefer a paper book to a Kindle, but Kindles are great for traveling. I also love audiobooks, so that can up my reading quotient. What draws you to a book? I tend to listen to recommendations from friends--then I move to blurbs and reviews. Covers are always important, but I'm not turned off if the cover isn't shrieking "Read me!" Do you ever reread books? I do! It's a comfort thing (confession: they're not YA books). I've reread (or re-listened) to lots of books. Sometimes, if I'm trying to figure out how a book makes its magic, I'll reread very slowly and take notes. Or listen over and over again.
Which YA books has had the most impact on your writing? Hard to say. I didn't start writing YA because I loved reading YA--I started writing YA because the characters/story that came to me were in the YA world. I'm always drawn to contemporary YA that yanks me into a characters mind and holds me there. Some examples might be STUPID FAST, Geoff Herbach, BROOKLYN BURNING, Steve Brezenoff, and PLEASE IGNORE VERA DIETZ, A.S. King--also books by Courtney Summers. Which books do you find yourself recommending over and over again? Oh gosh--see above, I guess! Kirstin Cronn-Mills is a self-proclaimed word nerd. According to her mother, she learned to read when she was three–and she hasn’t stopped since. In 1992 Kirstin moved from Nebraska to southern Minnesota, where she lives now. She writes a lot, reads as much as she can, teaches at a two-year college (she won the Minnesota State College Student Association 2009 Instructor of the Year award), and goofs around with her son, Shae, and her husband, Dan. Her first young adult novel, The Sky Always Hears Me and the Hills Don’t Mind (Flux, 2009), was a 2010 finalist for the Minnesota Book Award for Young People’s Literature. Her second novel, Beautiful Music For Ugly Children (Flux/Llewellyn, 2012), won ALA’s Stonewall Award in 2014 as well as an IPPY silver medal for Gay/Lesbian/Bi/Trans Fiction.
Kirstin has also published nonfiction books for middle and high school libraries: Collapse! The Science of Structural Engineering Failures (Compass Point Books, 2009) and Transgender Lives: Complex Stories, Complex Voices (Twenty-First Century Books/Lerner, 2014). For more information, please visit: kirstincronn-mills.com One of the very best things about being a writer/reader of YA is that you get to meet other writer/readers of YA. If you’re lucky, those writers will share their amazing stories with you—and you’ll get to share in the privilege of watching them become real live books. Today, I am celebrating the lovely Trinity Doyle and her stunning debut, PIECES OF SKY, which will be published by Allen and Unwin this June. Take a look at this beautiful cover, people!
I'm so completely thrilled about this book, you guys, and I think you're going to love it, too.
To find out more, visit Trinity on her fabulous blog: Trin in the Wind. If you hurry, you can enter for a chance to win a signed arc of this "luminous debut." Happy reading! Elle Why do you read young adult fiction? There are so many elements of YA Lit that appeal to me, but the strongest is the voice -- that raw, honest, and vulnerable voice of an adolescent wading through an experience, or series of experiences, after which their world will never be the same. It's the sound of the characters that draw me to the work, the way they unpack their emotions on the page. My favorite YA books are hinged by a strong narrative voice, typically a first person point of view. Of course the story and setting matter a great deal as well, the structure and subplots and sidekicks, but it always comes back to a strong authentic voice. What YA book are you reading now? I'm currently reading an ARC of the YA novel Fig (forthcoming April 2015) by Sarah Elizabeth Schantz; she's a Simon & Schuster author, too, and the story is one I haven't heard yet in the YA world, so I'm planning to blurb the book. In terms of other YA books sharing the nightstand with Fig, the new issue of One Teen Story and E. Lockhart's We Were Liars are currently in the stack. When and where do you read? If truth be told, I'm mostly reading board books to my son these days, so we read on the floor, on the couch, and in the cozy chair in his bedroom. He's ten months old, and reading has become one of his favorite activities. But when I can find the time to read for myself, it is often on the back deck, curled up on the couch, at my desk in my office before beginning my writing for the day, or in bed. I also read in airports, in parking lots, in coffee shops, in classrooms before my students arrive, at dog parks, standing up in the kitchen, and in doctor's office waiting rooms. I try to sneak it in when ever and where ever I can! And I can't fall asleep without reading for at least half an hour. It's my way of unwinding and closing up shop for the day. What draws you to a book? I rely heavily on word of mouth and recommendations from friends and other authors. When I was on book tour for Fingerprints of You, I collected books based off the suggestions of booksellers, and never left an event empty handed. Do you ever reread books? I absolutely do. One of the most wonderful things about reading is seeing a book in a new way depending on what you're bringing to the page at that time. For me, a book changes each time I read it, so I often return to my stack of favorites for inspiration, particularly when I'm struggling with something in my own work.
Which YA books have had the most impact on your writing? I don't think I can pinpoint one book that has had the most impact on my writing. With each project, I have found a number of books that have helped me discover my own goals and strengths and have un-stuck me when I've struggled. The Outsiders taught me to write against the advice "write what you know," while John Corey Whaley's Where Things Come Back and Daniel Handler's Why We Broke Up encouraged me to experiment with structure. Recently, Rainbow Rowell's Eleanor and Park reminded me to write honestly about the sweetness and vulnerability we experience with first love, while David Levithan's Every Day encouraged me to be mindful of including diversity in my cast of characters.
Which books do you find yourself recommending over and over again? John Green's Paper Towns, David Levithan's Two Boys Kissing, Claiming Georgia Tate by Gigi Amateau, and the literary YA magazine One Teen Story. Though it's not YA, I always recommend Ten Thousand Saints by Eleanor Henderson, which is absolutely beautiful and is populated by a fascinating group of teenaged characters. I also often recommend Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer in terms of an authentic and emotionally honest adolescent voice, though it is not a YA novel.  Kristen-Paige Madonia’s debut novel, Fingerprints of You, was published August 2012 by Simon & Schuster and recent fiction can be found in Upstreet, New Orleans Review, American Fiction: Best Previously Unpublished Stories by Emerging Writers, and Sycamore Review. She was awarded a 2011 Sewanee Writers’ Conference Tennessee Williams Scholarship and has received fellowships from the Hambidge Center, the Vermont Studio Center, the Juniper Summer Writing Institute, Virginia Center for Creative Arts, Hedgebrook, and the Millay Colony. She currently lives in Charlottesville, VA where she teaches creative writing and is at work on her second novel, Invisible Fault Lines (Simon & Schuster, 2016). For more information, please visit http: kristenpaigemadonia.com You may also like...
Why do you read young adult fiction? I read everything, to be honest, picture book all the way to adult. Usually, I read one adult novel to every three books for young readers. It gives me a good sense of the “sound” of each genre, not to mention introducing me to new voices in the field. What YA book are you reading now? I recently read Maggot Moon by Sally Gardner and Beautiful Music for Ugly Children by Kirsten Cronn-Mills. Maggot Moon, one of the Printz honor books, is science fiction; BMFUG, a Stonewall Award-winner, is realistic fiction about a transgender teen in high school. On the younger side of YA, I am currently reading Margi Preus’s West of the Moon, an adventure story based on Norse mythology. Quite a spread, right?  When and where do you read? I read in bed every single night for about an hour. It is my most peaceful and blessed time. I also read in airports, on long drives, in doctor’s offices, really any time that I am captive in a small space. It is my number one favorite thing to do. What draws you to a book? Reviews and awards do play an important role for me initially because I am always interested in what we are collectively calling strong work. I also love to get recommendations from friends who know my tastes or who might like to challenge me. I do love cover art, but the only time it factors in for me is if it’s intolerably sexist or silly – and then I just won’t open it on principle. What holds me in a book, though, is voice and how well the characters are drawn. Do you ever reread books? I definitely re-read a book if I’m going to use it in a lecture or speech, just to make sure that I remember the book as it really is. The first reading is pure enjoyment; the second reading is a study of how the author succeeded. There are only a few books that I re-read purely for pleasure, I’m sad to say. There just isn’t enough time to get to all the wonderful books that are being written. That said, Eva Moves the Furniture by Margot Livesey (not a YA) is a book I have re-read for style and tension and for the depth of the character. Which YA books have had the most impact on your writing? There has been no single book. There have been hundreds of books, and not just YA. My biggest influences have been the modern day Latino masters: Márquez, Alvarez, Cisneros, etc. In terms of YA specifically, I’d say that reading broadly has given me a sense of the landscape of the YA world. It has given me a clearer sense of what I like to do and what I might have to offer to young people in my own work.  Which YA books do you find yourself recommending over and over again? It actually changes every year and the list is long. This year, I was extremely fond of two titles in particular: Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein and And We Stay by Jenny Hubbard. Both of these novels center around young women pushed to their limit. I finished each one of them feeling so sad to have reached the end. Meg Medina is an award-winning Cuban American author who writes picture books, middle grade, and YA fiction. She is the 2014 recipient of the Pura Belpré medal and the 2013 CYBILS Fiction winner for her young adult novel, YAQUI DELGADO WANTS TO KICK YOUR ASS. She is also the 2012 Ezra Jack Keats New Writers medal winner for her picture book TIA ISA WANTS A CAR.
Meg’s other books are THE GIRL WHO COULD SILENCE THE WIND, a 2012 Bank Street Best Book and CBI Recommended Read in the UK; and MILAGROS: GIRL FROM AWAY. When she is not writing, Meg works on community projects that support girls, Latino youth and/or literacy. She lives with her family in Richmond, Virginia. For more information, visit: megmedina.com Why do you read young adult fiction? I love all kinds of fiction, but young adult is special. I think it’s because there is so much emotion in YA, regardless of genre. Everything can be exaggerated, but the truth remains. There’s no bullshitting in YA!  What YA book are you reading now? Right now I’m rereading THE DREAM THIEVES by Maggie Stiefvater. I’ve read the two books in THE RAVEN CYCLE three times now! I desperately want book 3. Before that, I finished reading books 1, 2 and 3 in THE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS series. I’ve got 4, 5 & 6 waiting on my shelf for when I can tear myself away from the Raven characters – which is probably never! When and where do you read? I always, ALWAYS, have a book with me. So I read at home, on the bus, and during my lunch hour. It’s the perfect way to de-stress. What draws you to a book? My friends are very bookish and so I listen to their recommendations. I’m a total sucker for a cover. I recently bought DIE FOR ME by Amy Plum based on the cover alone. Same with THE SELECTION trilogy by Kiera Cass – which I loved. But a bad cover can put me off a book too. My pet peeve with covers is if a character’s ethnicity is not truly reflected. Don’t whitewash. Do you ever reread books? See answer 2! I reread all the time. I’ve read HARRY POTTER at least 30 times. I reread LORD OF THE RINGS every other year. If I’m invested in a trilogy I will reread books 1 & 2 before number 3 comes out. I recently did this with Laini Taylor’s DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONE series.  Which YA books have had the most impact on your writing? Harry Potter is something I talk about a lot. I got into writing after working on the most popular Potter website in the world during the crazy release years. I started off writing articles and essays. That then progressed to fan fiction. Then my own novels. Years later, I’m agented with book deals! Strange how things work out when you’re doing something you love, but when you have a passion for literature, anything is possible. Which books do you find yourself recommending over and over again? THE RAVEN BOYS!!!! Seriously, don’t get me started on these books because I’m obsessed. I also recommended ANNA AND THE FRENCH KISS to a lot of people years ago when it first came out. FANGIRL is another contemporary YA I’m crazy about right now. All my old fandom buddies have been told to buy that one. That’s one of the things I love about Goodreads and Blogger. If you read a great book, SHOUT ABOUT IT – readers will listen! Donna Hosie is a hybrid YA author and full time geek. Part Potterhead, Ringer, Whovian and Sherlockian with sprinkles of Whedonite on top. If it's fantastical, she's in. Originally from England, Donna currently resides in Australia with her husband, three children, and a crazy Golden Retriever named Harry (after a certain boy wizard, of course)!
Donna is the author of the RETURN TO CAMELOT trilogy, THE RING OF MORGANA (May 2014), THE DEVIL'S INTERN (Holiday House, October 2014) and THE DEVIL'S DREAMCATCHER (Holiday House, Fall 2015). For more information, please visit Donna at The Bent Agency.
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