Kindle Daily Post

Guest Blogger: Karen Healey, on Being Nice to Your Characters

While I was writing my new young adult novel, When We Wake, I decided I’d better do something nice for the main character, Tegan Oglietti.

I mean, I was shooting the poor girl dead on the happiest day of her life. Then I was reviving her a hundred years later, in 2128, when she would discover a very different Melbourne, Australia, than the one in which she’d first lived. As the first successful cryonic revival, Tegan was going to be celebrated and reviled, an instant celebrity everyone wanted to use for their own purposes.

To make it up to her, I thought I’d better give Tegan some shiny new toys.

It turns out that when you’re writing about technology in the future, it pays to think about your past. Like many keen readers, I have to have a book within easy access at all times. If I’m getting near the end of that book, I have to have two. If I’m on an international flight or a long bus ride, I have to have three, possibly more. Since I don’t drive, all those books used to make a happy home in my shoulder bag.

Getting an e-reader was unexpectedly great for my posture.

Suddenly, all that weight on my right shoulder disappeared. I had more books immediately at hand than would ever have been possible in paper form, and yet I was carrying something that was lighter than any one of them.

Unfortunately, as a working writer, I still had this laptop to lug around. Tablets are great, and my phone will do in a pinch, but the problem is that tablet and phone screens aren’t big enough for all the things I want to be doing simultaneously. What if I could carry something that could be both small and big enough for me?

What if I could take the edges of a very little computer and stretch it out to be as big as I wanted? Like a piece of Plasticine that was all shiny screen—but I could tell parts of it to be a keyboard or a notepad, and it would obey. It would go rigid if I wanted rigid, or pliable if I wanted some give in it. Then I could hold it like a foldable storybook while I read to my students, or hang it from the range hood so that I could check the recipe while I cooked. And when I was done, I could take the edges of my very light computer and push it back down.

It would be so great for my back!

Ooh! And what if I could just roll my stretchy computer into a tight ball and toss it into my bag? No more heart attacks from setting my laptop case down a little too hard! What if my computer could suck up power from the sun? No more embarrassing power losses midpresentation, with the power adapter far, far away!

How about this: I use my phone’s lit-up screen as a flashlight all the time—usually to find my blasted keys in the depths of my shoulder bag. What if, on my new flexible, stretchable computer, I could wrap that glow around my shoulders like a shawl, and have light and my hands free? Safety feature!

Oh, and what if I could use my new computer to discover a vast conspiracy directly related to my cryonic revival? What if I could use it to record evidence of the nefarious plans the future Australian government had for other frozen sleepers—evidence people would kill to hide?

Wait, that’s not me. That’s Tegan.

I put her through a lot. In my defense, however, I did give her a really shiny new computer.

--Karen Healey

Q&A with Rainbow Rowell, author of "Eleanor & Park"

Eleanor & Park, Rainbow Rowell’s YA debut, is the story of two star-crossed misfits—smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try. Eleanor & Park is already a favorite among best-selling authors; Gayle Forman calls it “A sexy, smart romance” and John Green said “Eleanor & Park reminded me not just what it’s like to be young and in love with a girl, but also what it’s like to be young and in love with a book.”

What inspired you to write a misfits-in-love story like Eleanor & Park? 

I have always, always wanted to write a first love story. I feel like, when you’re 16, you have the greatest-ever capacity for romantic love. You fall in love with every cell of your body. But, at the same time, at that age, you have so little to offer the person you love. You don’t belong to yourself quite yet—you still have school and your parents, you don’t even have your own space…

And you also know that what you’re feeling probably won’t last. First love usually doesn’t. There’s a built-in tragedy to falling (truly) in love when you’re 16. It’s like every 16-year-old in love is either Romeo or Juliet. That is what I wanted to write about.

Eleanor & Park covers a lot of ground, from difficult family situations to the way music can open up a new world. But most of all, it’s about first love. Is that what you set out to write about?

My motivation was to make people actually feel love, to give them a realistic view of it. If they’re young and never been in love, for them to know – yes, this is how it feels. And if they’re older and they have, to feel it as a sense memory.

Eleanor and Park don’t necessarily look like conventional YA main characters – Eleanor is bullied because of her weight, and Park is smaller and the only Asian kid in the neighborhood. What was your thought process behind creating them that way?

Well, they’re not conventional in that they don’t look like the models that usually end up on teen magazine and book covers. But who does look like that? Nobody I’ve ever been attracted to.

I think the whole idea of conventional beauty and attractiveness is a lie. You can say that Ryan Gosling is handsome, or that Natalie Portman is beautiful. But does it matter? When you look at the person you love, you see that person in a way no one else can. Attraction is what happens between you. 

Eleanor and Park were both attractive to me; when I was writing this book, I was half in love with both of them.

Your first book, Attachments, was an adult novel -- why switch to young adult now?

I didn't do it consciously. This was just the story I wanted to tell next -- the only story in my head, at the time -- and I didn't even realize that Eleanor & Park would be YA, at first. But once I started working through that with my editor, it felt like a good fit. I've always read a lot of YA, and I'm drawn to movies and TV shows about teenagers. (Freaks and Geeks is my all-time favorite.) I think maybe I'm still trying to process everything I felt/saw/survived from 13 to 20.

What can you tell us about your upcoming book Fangirl?

It’s about a girl who doesn’t think she’s good at life—but she’s really good at being a fan. She feels more comfortable in fandom. She’s been writing fan fiction about the same two characters—Simon and Baz—since she was 12, and she’s gotten kind of famous in that world. 

The book is about her first year of college. She’s got a mean roommate (with a too-friendly boyfriend). Her twin sister’s ignoring her, her dad’s a mess, her writing professor is pushing her too hard…She keeps having to rise to the occasion, but all she really wants to do is stay in her room and write more Simon/Baz.

Also, she falls in love. (Because, in my books, somebody always falls in love.)

 

Q&A with Jessica Brody, author of "Unremembered"

When a sixteen-year-old girl wakes up among the wreckage of a devastating plane crash with no memories, she's forced to piece together her forgotten past with only one clue to her identity— a mysterious boy who claims she was part of a top-secret science experiment. From popular young adult author Jessica Brody comes Unremembered, the first book in a compelling and suspenseful new sci-fi series, set in a world where science and technology know no boundaries, memories are manipulated, and true love can never be forgotten.

Amazon.com: You have written three romantic comedies for teens. What inspired you to try your hand at science fiction

JB: I guess you could say I got bored with following the rules of the real world and decided it was time to make up my own. :) But seriously, all my books tell stories about teenagers who struggle with who they are and what circumstances they find themselves in. This is what I believe readers will relate to in the end (teens and adults alike) because we ALL struggle with this in our own lives. Putting this struggle into a sci-fi setting only allowed me to exaggerate the “Who am I?” question and stretch it into a more fantasized reality. I was very inspired to take a teen girl, put her in extraordinary circumstances, and see how that affected her emotional journey. Not surprisingly, she reacts much like any of my contemporary characters would in their “real-life” settings. Because in the end, we’re all human.

Amazon.com: There’s also a lot of action in this story. Was it fun coming up with so many high-octane scenes?

JB: Okay, I just have to say that up until the time I wrote this book, the most action-packed sequence I’d ever written was in The Karma Club when two of the teen girl characters had to sneak in through the window of the Queen Bee’s bathroom to replace her acne cream with Crisco without getting caught by the girl’s mother. And I thought that was exciting to write!

Needless to say, writing the action scenes in this book was like driving ninety miles an hour in a convertible, after all I’d ever done was pedaled on a tricycle. With Seraphina’s superhuman strengths and abilities, and the raised stakes of this world and its villains, the sky was the limit whenever I sat down to write. It was such a blast.

There’s one scene in the book when Sera is being chased by an unknown enemy and she darts across a major highway at her top-notch supersonic speed, causing a multicar collision with an 18-wheeler…followed by an explosion. And she survives. I remember sitting there at my computer after finishing the scene, breathless from all the excitement, and thinking, “Whoa. All of my other characters would be roadkill by now!”

Amazon.com: Sera is supermodel beautiful, stronger than any human on Earth, and she has a brain like a computer. If you could choose just one attribute, which would you choose?  

JB: Just one! I can only choose one!? Okay, I’m going to have to go with brains over brawn and beauty. That way I could write a new book every two weeks and be my own translator for all the international editions.

 

Author Lauren Morrill's Top Five Young Adult Novels

Lauren Morrill, author of Meant to Be, describes the top five young adult novels that inspire her.

Lauren Morrill: I'm not just a YA romance writer, I'm a ravenous YA romance reader! My shelves are stuffed full of some of the sweetest, funniest, swooniest books out there, all of which inspire me to work harder on my own. Every book I read inspires me in some way or another. Characters, settings, jokes, they all stay with me in some way. But these are the five books that most inspired me to dive into my own YA novel and keep on writing. Meant to Be debuted in November, and these books paved the way for Julia and Jason and their own journey to love in London.

The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen

Every YA connoisseur has their favorite Dessen novel, and this one is mine. I love Macy and Wes, but this book also sports a fantastic cast of supporting characters. Dessen is famous for her character cameos in later books, and I'd love to see more Burt some day.

Reading this novel back when I was in grad school was actually what inspired me to return to writing and paved the way for me writing Meant to Be. I was lucky enough to meet Sarah Dessen at an author event on Cape Cod, and when I told her how much she inspired me to write YA, she couldn't have been more kind. I had her sign my much-loved paperback copy of The Truth About Forever, and it's one of my most-treasured in my book collection.

My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick

This is a newer book that, if you haven't read, you definitely need to pick up. On my journey to publication, I was lucky enough to join a 2012 debut authors group calling themselves The Apocalypsies. Huntley Fitzpatrick was one of the authors I met, and so when her debut arrived on shelves I snatched it up. It's incredibly swoony and steamy while also being chock full of heart. You will definitely fall in love with Jase and the rest of the Garrett family. My Life Next Door is one of those books that I wish I'd written, and it's sitting in the back of my mind as I work on the follow-up to Meant to Be, called Being Sloane Jacobs (January 2014). Huntley's writing is nipping at my heels, pushing me to up the swoon factor.

Just as Long as We're Together by Judy Blume

Just like every YA author has a favorite Dessen, we all have a favorite Blume novel as well. Just as Long as We're Together isn't your typical YA romance. In fact, there's not much of a love interest to be found. This is more of a love letter to your very best friends, the ones you giggle with and play cards with and hope to stay buddies with forever. I first read this book sometime in the fifth grade, and I've read it probably 20 more times since. It's the book that made me want not to just be an author, but inspired me to write YA contemporary. Meant to Be definitely owes a major debt of gratitude to Just as Long as We're Together and the Queen herself, Ms. Judy Blume.

Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

I read Anna when I was smack in the middle of writing Meant to Be, and it was like a sweet, swoony light at the end of the first-draft tunnel. Not only did Stephanie Perkins create two of my favorite characters in YA lit, Anna and Etienne, but she made them and all their friends hysterically funny. Reading Anna was definitely a major inspiration for me, and I've been so flattered to see that lots of other Anna fans have been recommending Meant to Be.

The Jessica Darling Series by Megan McCafferty

One name. Marcus Flutie. If you've read McCafferty's comic series, which kicks off with Sloppy Firsts, then you already know what I'm talking about. And if you haven't, you should stop reading this, disconnect your Internet and start reading. I'll see you in a few days. It won't take you much longer than that to read the five books that make up one of my favorite love stories of all time. From Jessica's snark to Marcus' ginger mop, McCafferty inspired me and continues to inspire me. I reread this series every few years, and now that I'm gushing about it, I think it might be time to pick it up again soon.

To find out more about Lauren, visit her author page or learn more about her debut novel, "Meant to Be". 

Q&A with Marissa Meyer, author of the Lunar Chronicles

Marissa Meyer is the New York Times-bestselling author of Cinder, which marked her fiction debut and the debut of the Lunar Chronicles. Scarlet, the highly anticipated second book of the Lunar Chronicles, has already been called “another mesmerizing journey” by Publishers Weekly in a starred review. Scarlet introduces Scarlet Benoit, whose grandmother is missing, and whose only help in finding her is a street fighter named Wolf. Meanwhile, Cinder, the cyborg mechanic, is trying to break out of prison and stay one step ahead of the vicious Queen Levana, who has seen the sparks fly between Cinder and the handsome Prince Kai, and will do anything to ruin them both. Scarlet and Cinder must work together to save those they love – and the world.

Amazon.com: What was the most challenging aspect of writing Scarlet?

Marissa Meyer: Scarlet is written in dueling plotlines: One plot follows Cinder as she attempts to stay one step ahead of Queen Levana, while the other introduces eighteen-year-old Scarlet, whose grandmother has recently gone missing. I think the trickiest part for me was keeping these two plotlines balanced, and making sure that each story was suspenseful and easy to follow, so that readers would be invested in the problems facing both characters. I was frequently shuffling chapters around, trying to find the best fit and the best way to reveal certain bits of key information. At times, it was a big headache, but in the end, I think it all came together well, and I hope the book reads as one complete, entangled story.

Amazon.com: What do you think will surprise fans of Cinder the most when they read Scarlet?

Marissa Meyer: A lot of fans have expressed concern when they heard that I’m introducing so many new characters to this series, and yes, some of them encroach on Cinder and Kai’s spotlight. But I hope that readers will be surprised at how much they love these new characters, too, and that they’ll find themselves just as engaged with Scarlet’s story as they are with Cinder’s. Part of the fun for me in writing these books is seeing how these characters interact and play off each other, and I hope readers will get a kick out of that, too.

Amazon.com: In Scarlet, we learn more about Queen Levana and her powerful army. What or who inspired Levana and her empire?

Marissa Meyer: Levana’s character was born out of the Snow White fairy tale, which I knew would be the fourth retelling I wrote in this series. I knew early on that Snow White’s (or Winter’s) stepmother would play the role of the vain and evil queen determined to rule Earth and maintain her control over the people of the moon at any cost. To go back even farther, though, the premise of there being an entire kingdom on the moon was inspired by my love of Sailor Moon and years spent writing fan fiction, which continues to influence me and these books even when I’m not expecting it.

Amazon.com: You’re already working on Book Three of the Lunar Chronicles, Cress (based on Rapunzel). Will Cinder and Scarlet be a part of that book as well?

Marissa Meyer: Absolutely. Each book in the series will build on the last, introducing new characters and subplots while still continuing the stories of the characters we’ve already met and fallen in love with. I know it sounds complicated, but trust me, the stories all intertwine, and it’s going to be awesome!

Cosmetic Tips from the Author of "Kiss & Make Up"

Guest post by author Katie D. Anderson whose new young adult novel, Kiss & Make Up, released on October 2, 2012.

Anyone who has read my book, Kiss & Make Up, knows that just like my main character, I have a bit of an obsession with cosmetics. And just like her best friend, I love to give advice. So today I’ve decided to stick with the plot line and not only let you in on some of my favorite new makeup finds, but those of my 15-year-old daughter too.

1. Eyeshadows: I’ve been consumed with the entire Le Metier de Beaute line of eyeshadows. They are quite pricey but so worth it. Not only are they quadruple milled, which makes them so fine they’re almost creamy, but their application theory is different from most other companies. They encourage mixing the shades up and creating an almost ombre look. No more of that putting the dark shadow in the crease and such! Just smear color after color on top of each other and meld it all into a beautiful kaleidoscope. Darkest color on the bottom of the lid and then flow it up into other colors. My daughter has become equally enamored with Urban Decay’s Naked 2 palette. It’s a gorgeous set of 12 golds, browns, and taupes. And for you conservative mothers out there, this is a set they can really play with because it’s not highly pigmented. So, no matter how much you pile on (I’ve tried it), it doesn’t seem to ever get very dark. A perfect gift for a teenager.
2. Shampoos: I am head over heels in love with the Body Shop’s Banana shampoo. As someone who colors her hair, I am always on the lookout for a shampoo that will extend the life of my color and this is it. The scent is positively scrumptious, too. My daughter loves any and all of the Herbal Essences formulas. Her personal fave: None of Your Frizziness.
3. Lips: There is no bad lip gloss. But, we Andersons won’t be caught dead without good old Chapstick. And the new peppermint flavor is the bomb. We prefer old-school Chapstick to all other lip moisturizing products and think you should too.
4. Bronzer: Bronzer can be dangerous—especially for young girls. But in general, a nice touch of bronzer is an all year round kind of necessity. I am currently using Smashbox Halo and love it because of its packaging. It has a grater on top of the actual powdered cake of color and you just turn it and shred a tiny amount of bronzer into powder, then swirl your brush in it. Like a cheese grater! My girls at Zoe (my local cosmetics store) swear by it. Be advised though, it is a tinge yellow, but I have gotten used to it and it looks perfectly fine with my more pinkish blush. My daughter, who is also fair, is committed to Bare Minerals Faux Tan loose powder, which I happen to love, too.
5. Mascara: I’ve tried so many mascaras, and unlike most women, I feel a mascara is a mascara is a mascara. In my personal opinion, the key to beautiful lashes is to apply numerous layers of mascara but do not clump it up. For this reason, it’s necessary to find the kind of applicator brush you love the most. I use one brush to apply the product and another dry one to get any gunky stuff off. There is nothing worse than gloppy mascara. Both of us love the dark black pigmentation of the Mally brand mascara we found on QVC.

Hope you’ll try some of these and if you have any favorites of your own, sound off in the comments.

Top 12 Things Author Jessica Park Flat-Out Loved About 2012

Author Jessica Park writes about the top 12 things she flat-out loved about 2012. On the Island author Tracey Garvis Graves raved about the dialogue in Jessica’s book Flat-Out Love calling it “snappy, smart, hilarious, and (that) it crackles with subtle humor.” In Flat-Out Love, college freshman Julie Seagle is torn between Matt, the handsome guy she likes, and Finn, the guy she flat out loves. The thing about love, in all its twisty, bumpy permutations—it always throws you a few curves. And no one ever escapes unscathed.

1. Naked Prince Harry. The pure abandon! The running wild! I found it all fabulous.
2. Young Adult and New Adult are undeniably viable genres. 2012 was a huge year for indie authors in so many ways, not the least of which was proving that they know their readers and what sells, and they taught big publishers a thing or two. 
3. Bloggers. I would be nowhere as an author without bloggers. Their generosity and unfailing championing of my books and many others has been crucial in helping authors find readers.
4. Readers sharing stories with me about pain, family, and love in the face of tragedy. Every few weeks, I get a touching, honest letter from a reader who has connected with Flat-Out Love very intensely. I love that readers are able to open up to me and to let me know how they were moved by one or another aspects of the story.
5. Social networking. What would I be without it? I’ll tell you: I’d be a sobbing mess of loneliness. I work at home, and Facebook and Twitter are near lifelines to the outside world for support, friendship, humor. They’re the author’s water cooler.
6. Jalapenos in sushi. I’ve gone to L.A. a few times this year and discovered this trend. Manchester, New Hampshire is not known for its sushi, so when I was there I did what I could to gorge myself. Oh, God, I’m hungry now…
7. Pink hair dye. The general population should consider themselves lucky that I don’t walk around armed with latex gloves and a tube of dye.
8. Clint Eastwood and the empty chair.  ‘Nuff said.
9. My fellow authors. What a source of strength, inspiration, and support. When in the throes of a writing crisis, nobody gets one author like another. Emergency phone calls are always answered and freak outs always understood. 
10. Fancy schmancy events. I was lucky enough to attend Amazon’s big press conference in Santa Monica last September. I got to hang out with my buddy Michele Scott, meet the outrageously funny Andrew E. Kaufman, and mingle with Teresa Ragan and Barry Eisler, both of whom were tremendously kind and generous with their advice and experience.
11. Writing. I wrote another book (finally!), and it’s very different from Flat-Out Love. It’s darker, stronger, sexier, more layered, and more intense. Amazon Children’s Publishing picked up the book and will publish it this summer. It’s nice to know that I might not be a one-hit wonder.
12. The best thing about 2012? The indescribably delightful combination of Tumblr and Adam Levine’s appearance on “American Horror Story.” I mean, God bless all of you who took the time to showcase the important parts of that episode in a five-second looping clips. You guys are wonderful. Seriously.

Guest Blogger: Stefan Bachmann, author of "The Peculiar"

In The Peculiar, first-time novelist Stefan Bachmann crafts an elaborate alternate steampunk Britain, set after the Smiling War, when a door to the Old Country was opened and faeries of all types streamed into Bath. Here he is, talking about the top 5 questions kids asked him during his book tour. 

Back in October my publisher sent me on tour for my first book, The Peculiar. This was pprrrettty much the most exciting thing ever. I got to run around the US in a banana yellow car, and go to NYC, and Comic Con, and lots of schools, and meet all the awesome kid readers, and give presentations, and at the end of each presentation we always did a round of Q & A. And after a while I started noticing that some questions came up more than other questions. Like, a lot more. Sometimes several times from the same group, because kids would forget that someone else had asked it and would be, like, “Oh, me! I have a GREAT question.”

So I did this super-scientific tally after each presentation and added them all together, and here they are. . . .

The five most-asked questions from kids:

1. “Where do you get your ideas?”

2. “Will there be a movie? I like movies.”

3. “How much money do you earn? I like money.”

4. “Why does Hettie have branches growing out of her head? That's dumb/weird/rather interesting.”

5. “Is Mr. Lickerish’s faery butler based on the video game Slender?”

So. Here are the answers:

1. Where do I get my ideas? Umm, I meant to pick the kid next to you. Oh, you wanted to ask that question, too?

*flees*

Not really. But ideas tend to come from random places, and in this case the idea for a sinister steampunk-y England with folklore creatures and magic and clockwork birds came from nothing I can actually remember. It basically developed over a long period of time out of all the things I liked, and that’s not a very exciting answer, so I usually just said, “Nineteenth-century literature and Disney movies.” So, Treasure Planet, Atlantis, The Great Mouse Detective. Because Disney movies are awesome.

2. I don’t know if there’ll be a movie of The Peculiar! There’s a tiny chance? Maybe? I have a fantastic film agent who handled the movie deals for such things as Twilight and Eragon, but it’s a long road from book to screen and even if The Peculiar is optioned one never knows whether a movie will actually be made. ’Twould be cool, though.

3. Woah, sorry, what?

Okay, I only said that the first time. And I really should have been expecting this question, because had an author ever visited my school while I was growing up, I totally would have asked this. But of course one doesn’t talk about these things, so I usually just said, “I won’t tell you, mostly because it doesn’t matter. If you’re a writer you’ll write whether you’re paid a bajillion dollars or no money at all. You’ll do it because you love it, and because if you don’t write you’ll go insane.”

4. Because branches-growing-out-of-heads is cool? Obviously?

(What I actually said: Because Hettie (and her brother Bartholomew) is a Peculiar, half faery and half human, and somehow I needed to show that Peculiars were instantly and recognizably different from the Victorian humans and the wild, suspicious faeries. Therefore, branches.)

5. Mr. Lickerish’s faery butler is not based on the Slender Man. They’re both tall and creepy and have the tendency to show up when they’re least wanted, but the Slender video game didn’t even exist when I was writing this book. That’s okay, though. I loved this question.

I loved all the questions, really. Even the repeat questions and the silly ones. Kid readers are the best, and once we got these five out of the way, we got to all the smart and interesting ones about what it’s like living in Switzerland and the differences between it and the US, and why I wrote a book as a teenager instead of waiting until I was thirty years old and wise, and whether The Peculiar is secretly a deep metaphor for real-world issues. (Answer: Up to you! I just hope it’s an exciting and slightly frightening read for all sorts of different readers.)

Guest Blogger: Lauren Oliver, author of the Delirium Trilogy

Lauren Oliver captivated readers with her first novel, Before I Fall, a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year. She followed that up with Delirium, the first book in a best-selling trilogy, which continued with Pandemonium. The exciting finale is available March 5. Download Requiem today.

People often ask me what my preferred genre of book is—not just to read, but to write.

At first glance, it’s hard to say. I’ve always resisted categorization, or at least tried to, and every book I’ve written so far differs substantially from its predecessor. I’m similarly diverse in my reading: I often cycle through several books at once, alternating among literary fiction, potboiler detective novels, nonfiction, pop-science, and children’s books. My debut novel was realistic teen fiction; then I wrote a fantasy/sci-fi series; then a ghost story for children; then a story about spiders that live underground and eat children’s souls (also for children). In other words, a diverse group of books with a diverse set of main characters and themes.

But I’ve realized recently it’s not quite true that I don’t have a preferred genre. I love to write stories where the real and the fantastic—or the purely imagined—are in very close contact, just as I’ve always liked to read stories where a very thin membrane exists between the real and the fantastic. I like books where a plain, sturdy wardrobe gives access to Narnia; I like the works of Gabriel García Márquez, where everything is amplified and slightly distorted; and books about circuses that house real magicians and appear out of nowhere.

Maybe that’s why I like writing books for kids and teenagers. For children, that divide—between the real and the imagined—is naturally more tenuous. And for teens, the desire for another reality, a fantasy world that will lift them out of their present circumstances, is overpowering. All books are doors (and the best ones are wardrobes with doors in them). But they are also mirrors. We read books for entertainment, of course, but also to be transformed by them and to see our images reflected back in their pages. I don’t think the two things—escape and reflection—are mutually exclusive. If realistic fiction is a perfect mirror, an exact reflection of our lives and behaviors, then fantasy is that mirror brought up to a microscope, amplified, and made obvious. That’s what fairy tales are: short, weird, strange stories full of improbable or impossible things that nonetheless tell us something deeply true about who we are and what kind of world we live in. (See Bluebeard, and the fact that we all harbor secrets, and that even in intimacy we’re often strangers to one another.)

I’m working on my first book for “grown-ups” now, and I’m happy to say that it, too, is a ghost story. Our imaginative lives may be more segregated than the day-to-day in our adult lives (nothing kills a good bout of make-believe like being stuck in traffic on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway), but we don’t stop craving escape. We will always need mirrors—and wardrobes.

--Lauren Oliver

Why Adults Read YA or Should If They Don’t Already

Guest post by young adult author Maureen McGowan. Her most recent book, Deviants, released on October 30, 2012. In a post-apocalyptic world, where the earth is buried by asteroid dust Glory, a sixteen-year-old orphan, must conceal the superpowers she and her younger brother possess in order to survive.

Until three years ago, I hadn’t read a young adult (YA) novel since I was twelve. Why would I want to read books meant for kids? When I was a teen, most YA novels were decidedly juvenile, so I went straight from Nancy Drew to Sidney Sheldon. But in the intervening (cough) decades, YA fiction has changed.

And I’m happy to confess, I now love YA fiction.

It turns out that I’m not alone. A recently reported Bowker Market Research study found that 55 percent of buyers of YA fiction were adults and 78% of the time they were purchasing for their own reading—that is, they weren’t buying the books for their kids.

If you’re an adult like me, who hasn’t read a teen book in years, here are some reasons you should try:

1. YA fiction is fast paced. In most YA fiction these days, there’s no padding and no excessive description or narrative.
2. Teen novels tackle big subjects without being pedantic or preachy. Today’s YA novels don’t hit you over the head with a “message” but at the same time don’t shy away from big questions and issues. 
3. They are penetrable. While many tackle complicated topics, you don’t need a PhD in English to interpret YA novels, and most have an uplifting ending.
4. There’s plenty of drama, conflict and tension. The teen years are full of heightened emotions. It’s when we experience our first loves, first heartbreaks, first huge setbacks and triumphs. And first experiences are storytelling goldmines.
5. YA fiction blurs genre lines.
   
   • Want a novel set during the Holocaust and narrated by Death? YA has that. Try The Book Thief by Markus Zuzak.
   • Want a story with horror and adventure, set in a future (that feels like the past), written in a literary style? YA has that. Try Blood Red Road by Moira Kelly. 
   • Want a sci-fi re-imagining of Jane Austen’s Persuasion? YA has that. Try For Darkness Shows the Stars by Diana Peterfreund. 
   • Want a supernatural thriller, in a dystopian setting, with a dash of both romance and horror? Try my new YA novel Deviants.

I could list more reasons why I love YA but, bottom line, I’ve found most books in this category to be engaging, entertaining, thoughtful and well written.

So, if you haven’t read a YA novel since you were a teen—try one. It just might make reading fun again.