Feature Book of the Week #11 The Last Thing I Remember by Andrew Klavan

FEATURE BOOK OF THE WEEK

THE LAST THING I REMEMBER

BY

ANDREW KLAVAN

Charlie West just woke up in someone else's nightmare.
He's strapped to a chair. He's covered in blood and bruises. He hurts all over. And a strange voice outside the door just ordered his death.
The last thing he can remember, he was a normal high-school kid doing normal things--working on his homework, practicing karate, daydreaming of becoming an air force pilot, writing a pretty girl's number on his hand. How long ago was that? Where is he now? Who is he really?
And more to the point . . . how is he going to get out of this room alive? (Publisher's summary from Goodreads)

AUTHOR'S GUEST POST

What Is A Tough Guy?  

by Andrew Klavan

I am what is sometimes known as a “tough guy writer.”  This, I’m sorry to say, does not mean that I’m a tough guy who is also a writer.  It means I’m a writer who writes stories about tough guys. 

Well, okay, you may say, but what does that mean?  What is a “tough guy” exactly?  And that’s a good question, because a tough guy is not what you might think.  For instance, a tough guy is not someone who is so big or so strong that he wins every fight.  In fact, sometimes, it’s only when someone loses a fight that you find out how tough he really is!  Also, a tough guy is not someone who is never afraid.  After all, who is tougher than a guy who does what has to be done even when he is very much afraid?

So what is a tough guy?  To give an example from my books, I think Charlie West, the hero of the Homelanders series, is a tough guy. In the first book in the series, The Last Thing I Remember, Charlie goes to sleep in his own bed one night—and wakes up strapped to a chair being tortured by terrorists.  Bad news!  Charlie isn’t stronger than the terrorists—obviously, or he wouldn’t be strapped to the chair.  And Charlie isn’t fearless—he’s scared out of his mind!

But Charlie is honest and he’s determined.  He’s honest because he doesn’t kid himself about the situation.  He doesn’t say, “Oh, maybe if I’m nice to the terrorists, they’ll be nice to me.”  He knows the terrorists won’t be nice to him no matter what he does.  After all—duh!—they’re terrorists!  And he doesn’t say, “Oh, maybe if I just wait patiently someone will come and rescue me.”  Someone might rescue him—it’s possible.  But it doesn’t make much sense to wait around and find out.

So what does Charlie do?  He acts.  He tries to rescue himself.  He thinks about what he can do, what skills he has, what powers he can muster.  He thinks about the fact that he has a black belt in karate.  He thinks about the words of a famous man who once said, “Never surrender.”  He looks for any chance—no matter how small—that he can escape from this horrible situation.

And that’s what makes Charlie “tough.”  He doesn’t lie to himself; he uses whatever tools he has to do what he needs to do; and, no matter what happens, no matter how bad things look, he never, ever, ever surrenders.

People like Charlie are the kinds of heroes I like to read about, so they’re the kind of heroes I like to write about too.

And that’s why they call me a “tough guy writer.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Award winning author, screenwriter and media commentator Andrew Klavan is the author of such internationally bestselling novels as True Crime, filmed by Clint Eastwood, and Don’t Say A Word, filmed starring Michael Douglas. Andrew has been nominated for the Mystery Writers of America’s Edgar Award five times and has won twice. His books have been translated around the world. His latest novel for adults, The Identity Man, has been praised by Nelson Demille as “fast paced, intelligent and thought-provoking; a great read!” Television and radio host Glenn Beck says “Andrew Klavan never disappoints…one of the best illustrations of the power of redemption that I’ve ever read.” His last novel Empire of Lies was about media bias in the age of terror, and topped Amazon.com’s thriller list. 

Andrew has also published a series of thrillers for young adults, The Homelanders, which follows a patriotic teenager’s battle against jihadists. The books have been optioned to be made into movies by Summit Entertainment, the team behind the mega-successful Twilight film series.

Andrew is a contributing editor to City Journal, the magazine of the Manhattan Institute. His essays and op-eds on politics, religion, movies and literature have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, The Washington Post, the LA Times, and elsewhere. His video feature, “Klavan on the Culture,” can be found at PJTV.com. Andrew is a frequent media guest on television and radio stations from coast to coast, where he is known for his quick wit, humor and commentary on politics and entertainment. 

As a screenwriter, Andrew wrote the screenplay to 1990’s A Shock to the System, which starred Michael Caine, and to 2008’s One Missed Call, which stars Ed Burns and Shannyn Sossamon. He lives in Southern California.(Author's bio from http://www.andrewklavan.com/about/)

I want to thank Andrew for taking time out of his extremely busy schedule to write such a fantastic post for the 2011/2012 Book Battle. I also hope that those of you who have read the book will read the rest of the book in the series.

Special Announcement

This will be the last Feature Book of the Week until the New Year. Also make sure that you continue to leave comments on the posts. Finally, be sure to watch in January for the beginning of the Question of the Week.  

HAPPY HOLIDAYS 

from the 

Area Wide Book Battle Committee

2011/2012 Feature Book of the Week #10Chasing Lincoln's Killer by James Swanson

FEATURE BOOK OF THE WEEK

CHASING LINCOLN'S KILLER

BY JAMES SWANSON

When actor John Wilkes Booth raced from Ford's Theatre after assassinating President Abraham Lincoln, he began a mad flight that lasted 12 days. James Swanson's Chasing Lincoln's Killer recapitulates the exciting chase through small towns and swamps by drawing on letters, manuscripts, trial transcripts, government reports, and contemporary newspaper interviews. This juvenile nonfiction hardcover displays history as it should be seen: up close and personal. (Publisher's summary from Goodreads)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

 
James L.Swanson is the Edgar Award–winning author of the New York Times bestseller Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer. In 2009 in Newsweek magazine, Patricia Cornwell named Swanson's Manhunt and Truman Capote's In Cold Blood as the two best nonfiction crime books ever.

In 2006, Entertainment Weekly magazine named Manhunt one of the ten best books of the year. Swanson has degrees in history from The University of Chicago, where he was a student of John Hope Franklin, and law from the University of California, Los Angeles. He has held a number of government and think-tank posts in Washington, D.C., including at the United States Department of Justice. He serves on the advisory council of the Ford’s Theatre Society.

His other books include the acclaimed photographic history Lincoln’s Assassins: Their Trial and Execution, as well as Chasing Lincoln’s Killer, and adaptations of Manhunt and Bloody Crimes for young readers. James L. Swanson was born on Lincoln’s birthday. (Author's bio from Harper Collins http://www.harpercollins.com/author/microsite/About.aspx?authorid=25032 )

 

 

2011/2012 Feature Book of the Week #9The Potato Chip Puzzles by Eric Berlin

FEATURE BOOK OF THE WEEK

THE POTATO CHIP PUZZLES

BY ERIC BERLIN

When puzzle addict Winston Breen and his best friends head to an all-day puzzle hunt with a $50,000 grand prize, they're pumped. But the day is not all fun and games: not only do they have a highstrung and highly competitive teacher along for the ride, but the puzzles are hard even for Winston, the other schools' teams are no joke, and someone in the contest is playing dirty in order to win. Trying to stop this mystery cheater before it's too late takes an already tough challenge to a whole other level. . . .

Packed with a variety of fun puzzles to solve, this fast-paced sequel will pull readers right into the action from start to finish. (Publisher's Summary from Goodreads)

AUTHOR GUEST POST

Sometimes people ask me how I came up with Winston Breen's name, and the truth is, I don't remember. (Honestly, I wish I knew.) Or people will ask me how I came up with all the puzzles for my books, and the answer is, it's just something I know how to do -- probably as a result of solving a million puzzles over the span of my life.

But then people ask me how I came to write books with puzzles in them, and THAT question I can answer.

I'm friends with a lot of people who, like me, love puzzles. We're all scattered around the country, and so we get to see each other only a few times a year. So when we do get together, large groups of us go out to dinner and catch up. It was at one such dinner, perhaps in 2000 or 2001, that we got to talking about all the things in our childhood that made us realize we would be lifelong puzzle people. We had all played the same video games, and we all loved patter songs like Tom Lehrer's "Elements." We were all madly addicted to Games magazine. We were all a little on the nerdy side. Or maybe more than a little.

And everybody at the table, as a child, had read the same book: "The Westing Game," by Ellen Raskin. It won the Newbery medal in 1979. It's still read and beloved by children today. And somehow -- impossibly -- I had never heard of it. This book that all my puzzle-loving friends had read, I had missed it entirely.

Well. Obviously I wasn't going to let THAT stand. So I ordered a copy the very next day, and read it as soon as it arrived.

It's a fine book. There's a reason it's considered a classic.

BUT... I was expecting something a little different. Because this book had come to me via all my puzzle friends, I thought it was going to be a mystery filled with different kinds of puzzles -- things you could solve as you read along. It's not. There's only one real puzzle in "The Westing Game." It's a doozy of a puzzle, to be sure. But it's only one.

And soon I thought: Well, I could write a mystery with lots of puzzles in it, can't I? I could write the book I had expected "Westing Game" to be! I could write the sort of book that if I had found it on a library bookshelf when I was a kid, I would have grabbed it immediately. Out of another person's hands if necessary.

That was the spark behind Winston Breen, and I'm happy to say that today's puzzle-loving kids ARE discovering him. That's why I was able to write the second book, "The Potato Chip Puzzles," and that's why a third book, "The Puzzler's Mansion," comes out in May 2012. You don't have to solve any of the puzzles as you read, of course -- if you want to skip the puzzles and enjoy the story, that's fine with me. But I'm hoping that even kids who don't like puzzles will stare at one of Winston's challenges... and have that"aha!" moment of solving satisfaction. The same kind of moment that turned me into a puzzle addict a long time ago.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Eric Berlin creates puzzles for all ages, from kids to adults (his crosswords appear often in the New York Times). He is a member of the National Puzzlers' League, and enjoys creating puzzle events for schools and other groups. He lives in Milford, Connecticut, with his wife and two children. (Author bio from The Puzzling World of Winston Breen web site)

Thanks so much to Eric from participating in this year's Feature Book of the Week. Make sure you leave your comments about his guest post and about his book.

2011/2012 Feature Book of the Week #9Five Flavors of Dumb by Antony John

FEATURE BOOK OF THE WEEK

FIVE FLAVORS OF DUMB

BY

ANTONY JOHN

The Challenge: Piper has one month to get the rock band Dumb a paying gig.

The Deal: If she does it, Piper will become the band's manager and get her share of the profits.

The Catch: How can Piper possibly manage one egomaniacal pretty boy, one talentless piece of eye candy, one crush, one silent rocker, and one angry girl? And how can she do it when she's deaf?

Piper can't hear Dumb's music, but with growing self-confidence, a budding romance, and a new understanding of the decision her family made to buy a cochlear implant for her deaf baby sister, she discovers her own inner rock star and what it truly means to be a flavor of Dumb.

AUTHOR GUEST POST

AND SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT

Hey there, Book Warriors! A huge thanks to all of you for including me in your battle plans. I can’t wait to meet you on May 8^th next year! I’ll be the one who isn’t Heather Brewer :)

If you’ve been reading all the posts, you may have noticed that authors sometimes take long and winding paths to getting published. This is not unusual. It’s really not even surprising. We’re the sum of our experiences, and the more experiences we have, the more we have to draw from when we write.

But what’s just as interesting to me is that we all take different paths to becoming readers too. Some of you may have been devouring books for years, while others may only now be discovering the joys of reading. If you’re in the latter group, then you’re just like me.

When I was a middle school student in England in the 1980s, a lot of the books felt terribly similar. There was always a little (non-violent) adventure, some wholesome friendships, contented siblings, and at least one or two fluffy puppy dogs (because no English family is complete without a fluffy puppy dog, apparently). To be honest, these books didn’t exactly excite me, and so I pretty much gave up on reading altogether. I was what librarians and teachers call a “reluctant reader.” Sad, but true.

Then, when I was 13, my English teacher handed me a copy of “The Outsiders” by S. E. Hinton. It blew my mind! Suddenly I wasn’t reading about other well-adjusted English kids, I was reading about gangs in an Oklahoma high school. The language felt raw and real. Everything moved along at breakneck speed. I was hooked.

At the time, I didn’t know that Susan Hinton wrote “The Outsiders” when she was only 16 years old. She was writing from her own experience. But the key thing is that her experience was not the same as mine. “The Outsiders” removed me from my world and put me in hers. It made me view the world differently.

And that is why I read and write books. I want to constantly rethink what the world is, and what it might be. I want to see a familiar scene through the eyes of someone I’ll never be. I don’t have much in common with Piper Vaughan, the narrator of “Five Flavors of Dumb”—she’s a girl at a co-ed US high school, whereas I went to an all-boys school in England. She’s deaf and has little interest in music (at first, anyway), whereas I’m hearing and have Ph.D in music. But seeing the world through her eyes allowed me to think about music from an entirely new perspective. It taught me a lot about deafness. And it reminded me how important communication is to everyone, hearing or not.

As you read the books in the challenge, think about how they change your view of the world. And if you feel inspired to write you own book, go for it!

One last thing: If a book gets you really fired up, please tell your friends about it. If you think one of the challenge books will appeal to a friend or family member, check it out from the library and put it in their hands. Share the gift of your favorite books. Who knows—maybe you’ll change someone else’s

 ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Antony John is the author of young adult novels Busted: Confessions of an Accidental Player and Five Flavors of Dumb (winner of the American Library Association’s Schneider Family Book Award). His novels Thou Shalt Not Road Trip and Elemental are forthcoming from Dial/Penguin in 2012. A native of England, he graduated from Oxford University with a degree in music, and received his Ph.D. from Duke University. Now he lives with his family in St. Louis, Missouri. Check out his website: www.antonyjohn.net. 

First, I want to thank Antony for taking time to participate in the Feature Book of the Week.  And in case you missed it in his opening comments, the Book Battle Committee is very excited that Antony  

WILL BE JOINING US THIS YEAR AT THE BOOK BATTLE!!!! 

Enjoy his book!  And Happy Thanksgiving!

2011/2012 Feature Book of the Week #7The Bull Rider by Suzanne Morgan Williams

FEATURE BOOK OF THE WEEK

BULL RIDER 

BY SUZANNE MORGAN WILLIAMS

Cam O'Mara, grandson and younger brother of bull- riding champions, is not interested in partaking in the family sport. Cam is a skateboarder, and perfecting his tricks — frontside flips, 360s — means everything until his older brother, Ben, comes home from Iraq, paralyzed from a brain injury. 

What would make a skateboarder take a different kind of ride? And what would get him on a monstrosity of a bull named Ugly? If Cam can stay on for the requisite eight seconds, will the $15,000 prize bring hope and a future for his big brother? (Publisher's summary from Goodreads)

AUTHOR GUEST POST

Today I was at a high school and one of the students asked me “Why do you write your books?” My answer? – so people will read them. Yes, most writers love language and play with it the same way a star basketball player may practice six ways to do a layup shot. Yes, most professional writers hope to make money and almost everyone likes to be told they are special and their work is good. That just feels great. But the reason I spend a couple of years writing a book is because somewhere in that process I found the story’s heart, the thing that I’ve struggled with in my own mind, the question that I want to think about, and maybe a little bit of my answer that I want to share with readers.

When I started writing Bull Rider it was a story about a kid who wanted to be a bull rider and his mom wouldn’t let him do it. It was simple and the book had nothing to do with the story it became – the story of a family dealing with the aftermath of war. But one of the smaller characters in that first (unpublished) manuscript was Cam O’Mara’s older brother Ben. As I designed the O’Mara family, I needed Ben to be doing something, and being from a small ranching town, I figured he’d join the service as so many young men and women do. And I was writing the book during the height of the fighting in Iraq, and I had a hard time ignoring that if this brother was in the service, he’d probably be in the Middle East fighting a war. That was a really different story from the light one I’d started out to write. But that was the one that grabbed my heart. What if that brother came home injured and fundamentally changed? How would Cam handle that? So I found the heart of Bull Rider and the passion of writing this story for you.

Please know that every author of every book in your library wrote those books to be read. An unread book is like a text message that you don’t pick up or a conversation that you pretend to listen to but really blow off while you play a video game. A book that sits on a shelf doesn’t matter. But when you read a book you connect with the author. You become part of a conversation with someone you may never meet, but whose words may touch you. That’s the possibility, the promise, every time you pick up a book.

I just love knowing that you guys are reading Bull Rider. The things you think about and care about will be the basis for what happens in all of our futures. This is the absolute truth. School isn’t really about getting good grades and doing assignments – although that’s how you get through and on toward what you want to do. It’s about becoming the great people you are intended to be. Every time you read a good book, you not only (hopefully) are entertained, but you get to crawl inside someone else’s head and try on their ideas. You won’t always agree with the author or with each other, but like exercising to get better at sports, reading lots and lots of books will strengthen your own sense of who you are. As an author, a citizen, and a human being, I couldn’t hope for more than that. I’m honored that Bull Rider is on your Truman Award List, is part of the Book Battle and that, for a little while, we may share some thoughts. Enjoy.  

Suzanne Morgan Williams

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Suzanne Morgan Williams is the author of the novel Bull Rider (Margert K. McElderry, 2009) as well as eleven nonfiction books for children. Bull Rider is a Junior Library Guild Selection, is on state award lists in Texas, Nevada, Missouri, and Indiana, and received a Western Heritage Award from the National Cowboy Museum in Oklahoma City and represented the state of Nevada at the National Book Festival in Washington D.C. Suzanne’s nonfiction titles include Pinatas and Smiling Skeleton (Outstanding, Parents’ Council and Best Multicultural Book, Independent Publisher’s Book Award), The Inuit , Made in China, and the upcoming China’s Daughters (Pacific View Press 2011). Suzanne’s work takes her into classrooms and communities across the US and Canada, from Mexico to the Arctic. Visit www.suzannemorganwilliams.com

 

I want to thank Suzanne for taking the time to be a part of this year's Feature Book of the Week and writing a guest post especially for all who will be competing this years.

2011/2012 Feature Book of the Week #6 The Latte Rebellion by Sarah Jamila Stevenson

FEATURED BOOK OF THE WEEK

THE LATTE REBELLION 

BY 

SARAH JAMILA STEVENSON

Our philosophy is simple: Promote a latte-colored world! —from the Latte Rebellion Manifesto When high school senior Asha Jamison gets called a "towel head" at a pool party, the racist insult gives Asha and her best friend Carey a great money-making idea for a post-graduation trip. They'll sell T-shirts promoting the Latte Rebellion, a club that raises awareness of mixed-race students. Seemingly overnight, their "cause" goes viral and the T-shirts become a nationwide fad. As new chapters spring up from coast to coast, Asha realizes that her simple marketing plan has taken on a life of its own-and it's starting to ruin hers. Asha's once-stellar grades begin to slip, threatening her Ivy League dreams, and her friendship with Carey is hanging by a thread. And when the peaceful underground movement turns militant, Asha's school launches a disciplinary hearing.Facing expulsion, Asha must decide how much she's willing to risk for something she truly believes in. (Publisher's summary from Goodreads)

AUTHOR'S GUEST POST 

Hi Book Battlers! I'm honored to be part of this year's mayhem.

Funny thing about reading: when you sit down to get absorbed in an amazing story, that story seems like such an independent force, like it came into being fully formed and couldn't have existed any other way. Harry Potter, he of the green eyes and lightning-shaped scar, could never have been Henrietta Potter, with two Harley-riding parents and an orange mohawk, for instance. (Although, if I had written it, maybe...)

But the truth is, a story can take a lot of different forms before it sees the light of day. Some stories never manage to see the light of day at all, but the important part is to keep writing. The Latte Rebellion is my first published novel, but I wrote two-and-a-half novels and a whole bunch of short stories before I even started Latte. But it would not have been possible for me to write Latte without having written those novels and stories, without sending them out and getting rejection notes and being inspired and determined to do better next time.

Heck, I wouldn't have been able to write Latte if it weren't for EVERY bit of writing that came before. Even the really, really bad stuff, like the unfinished dystopian cyber-thriller starring a guy with a robot arm, and the angst-filled poems that made me sound like I should be put in a comfy padded room without any sharp objects. Yes, even those fashion magazines for cats that I made when I was a kid, complete with advice columns. (I'm sorry to report that I did indeed write all of those things.)

Fortunately, NONE of that made it into The Latte Rebellion. What did make it into the story, even if indirectly, was the fact that I kept on going, didn't ever give up on writing or let rejection or failure get in the way of how much I love putting words together to create stories. I stayed focused on trying to improve, trying to become a better writer. And my favorite method of trying to become a better writer is to read a lot. In fact, I think I can credit my immense, sometimes out-of-control, love of reading for the fact that I'm a writer now. 

I hadn't planned to be a writer—I thought I'd be illustrating the covers of books rather than writing the stories inside. But even though I still draw, paint, and do other artistic things, I always come back to words. I start the day with reading. (And coffee.) I read as the last thing I do before I go to bed. 

And one of the thoughts that gives me the most joy and amazement is to picture some other book addict, reading under the covers at night before bed, with MY book in their hands--my little story, The Latte Rebellion, about a girl whose moneymaking scheme spirals out of control and causes both havoc and hilarity. If that's you, sneaking in a few more minutes of your book addiction before bed, well, thanks for reading!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Sarah Jamila Stevenson is a writer, artist, graphic designer, introvert, closet geek, enthusiastic eater, struggling blogger, lapsed piano player, household-chore-ignorer and occasional world traveler. Her previous lives include spelling bee nerd, suburban Southern California teenager, Berkeley art student, under appreciated temp, and humor columnist for a video game website.

Throughout said lives, she has acquired numerous skills of questionable usefulness, like intaglio printmaking and Welsh language. She lives in Northern California with her husband, who is also an artist, and two cats with astounding sleep-inducing powers.

She earned a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Mills College in Oakland, CA, a post-baccalaureate certificate in Printmaking from the San Francisco Art Institute, and a BA in Art Practice and Psychology from the University of California at Berkeley.

I want to thank Jamila for taking time out of her writing and blogging schedule to talk to us about reading and writing. 

Don't forget to leave a comment about the book and her post.

2011/2012 Feature Book of the Week #5 Jane in Bloom by Debby Lytton

FEATURED BOOK OF THE WEEK

JANE IN BLOOM

BY

DEBBY LYTTON

Jane's big sister, Lizzie, has always been the center of attention. No one ever pays attention to boring, plain Jane. But when Jane's twelfth birthday marks the beginning of Lizzie's fi nal descent into a fatal eating disorder, Jane discovers that the only thing harder than living in her big sister's shadow is living without her.

In the wake of tragedy, Jane learns to look through her camera lens and frame life differently, embracing her broken family and understanding that every girl has her season to blossom. Spare and vulnerable prose marks this beautiful debut that is at once heartbreaking and uplifting. (Publisher's summary from Goodreads)

AUTHOR'S GUEST POST

Imagine you and I are sitting together in my favorite tea room in Los Angeles.  Maybe we would talk about our favorite books.   You would tell me what books you love. 

 

And then I would tell you that I love Pride and Prejudice, The Scarlet Letter, historical fiction about Queen Elizabeth I, Alice in Wonderland, the Wizard of Oz and Island of the Blue Dolphins.

Then you might ask me how I knew I wanted to be a writer. 

I have had many careers.  I’ve been an actress, a singer and an attorney.  But I became a writer because I love books.  I love staying up until three in the morning because I can’t stop reading.  I love laughing out loud, weeping in sorrow and falling in love.  I love making new friends.  Books are an escape for me.  Writing them is like embarking on a journey without knowing my destination.  Because I never know exactly what is happening next.  For me, writing is freedom.  I have to write, like I have to breathe.

Perhaps you would want to know why I decided to write Jane in Bloom. 

I wrote Jane in Bloom for anyone who has ever felt invisible.  Many years ago, I saw a television news segment about forgotten siblings.  They were lost in a family that was focused on a child with a problem.  That child took all the attention.  And the forgotten brother or sister was left alone.  Feeling invisible.  I wanted to tell their story.  And that became Jane’s story.  Jane is a girl who has been forgotten.  Because everyone around her is only looking at her older sister, Lizzie.  Lizzie could have had any number of problems.  But I decided to give her an eating disorder.  So many girls and women today struggle with their body images.  Our society tells us we need to look a certain way to be considered beautiful.  I wanted to show that beauty comes from within.  True beauty comes from being true to yourself.  From believing in yourself.   Jane learns this lesson.  Sadly, Lizzie does not. 

Many readers have asked me why Jane becomes a photographer in the book.

I wanted to give Jane a creative outlet to express herself.  I believe in writing what I know, so I needed to choose something I could understand.  I am a really terrible artist, so art was out.  I am a fairly good photographer, though.  Photography is a way to express yourself while being able to remain invisible.  You aren’t in the photograph, rather it is your vision that is seen in the photograph.  This allows for expression without exposure.  I liked this for Jane.  In order to write about Jane’s experience as a photographer, I took my camera and went out and shot photos of roses.  It was much more difficult than I imagined it would be.  But it let me into Jane’s world even more. 

 

I hope before we finish our tea, you would tell me about your own writing. 

I believe all of us have stories to tell, and that no one can tell a story exactly the way that you would tell it.  The best lesson I have learned about being a writer is to write.  Because the lovely thing about writing is that it improves with practice.  And you don’t need anyone else to help you.  You can take a pen and paper, or write on your computer.  All you need is your imagination.  And if you let it, your imagination will take you on a fantastic journey.

Thank you for reading Jane in Bloom.  I am really grateful to know that Jane’s story is being shared. 

Deborah Lytton

ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

 

Deborah Lytton is a writer and actress who grew up in front of the camera, beginning her career at age six when she was discovered by a Hollywood agent.  Her acting credits include five years on the hit daytime soap opera Days of our Lives as “Melissa Anderson” and numerous television roles on shows such as Mod Squad, Family, The Waltons, The Incredible Hulk, Stone, Next Step Beyond and Streets of San Francisco.  

   Debby signed her first record deal with Curb Records at the age of twelve.  She went on to sing songs on the soundtracks for numerous films including Hot Lead and Cold Feet, Mac and Me and Let It Be Me.  She sang Time which appeared in the feature film Ballistic Ecks vs. Sever and was also on the film soundtrack.   In addition, she was one of the cast of the animated musical Rudolph the Movie for Good Times Entertainment. 

Debby is educated as an attorney, having graduated cum laude from both U.C.L.A., where she received a B.A. and from Pepperdine University School of Law, where she received a J.D.  Debby then went on to pass the Bar Exam in two states, California and Tennessee.

Debby resides in Los Angeles, California with her daughters, Ava and Caroline.  In her free time, Debby enjoys photography, studying martial arts and going to Disneyland.

Jane in Bloom is her first novel.  

I want to thank Debby Lytton for taking time out and providing such a wonderful guest post. 

 

2011/2012 Feature Book of the Week #5 Shifter by Janice Hardy

FEATURED BOOK OF THE WEEK

SHIFTER BY JANICE HARDY

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Nya is an orphan struggling for survival in a city crippled by war. She is also a Taker—with her touch, she can heal injuries, pulling pain from another person into her own body. But unlike her sister, Tali, and the other Takers who become Healers' League apprentices, Nya's skill is flawed: She can't push that pain into pynvium, the enchanted metal used to store it. All she can do is shift it into another person, a dangerous skill that she must keep hidden from forces occupying her city. If discovered, she'd be used as a human weapon against her own people. 

Rumors of another war make Nya's life harder, forcing her to take desperate risks just to find work and food. She pushes her luck too far and exposes her secret to a pain merchant eager to use her shifting ability for his own sinister purposes. At first Nya refuses, but when Tali and other League Healers mysteriously disappear, she's faced with some difficult choices. As her father used to say, principles are a bargain at any price; but how many will Nya have to sell to get Tali back alive? (Publisher's summary from Goodreads)

GUEST POST FROM

JANICE HARDY

Nya is an orphan struggling for survival in a city crippled by war. She is also a Taker—with her touch, she can heal injuries, pulling pain from another person into her own body. But unlike her sister, Tali, and the other Takers who become Healers' League apprentices, Nya's skill is flawed: She can't push that pain into pynvium, the enchanted metal used to store it. All s
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Hi guys! I’m so excited to be part of your Book Battle this year. I wish they had these when I was in school.

People always ask me where I got the idea for my trilogy, The Healing Wars, especially the first book, The Shifter. How did I ever come up with shifting pain from person to person? Well, it was actually inspired by a movie.

I went to see the first X-Men movie, and Rogue is my favorite surperhero of all time. (If you don’t know, her power is that she accidentally steals other heroes’ powers when she touches them) After the movie, I started thinking about stealing things from people by touch, and that led to me wondering what would happen if someone could heal by accidentally bumping into people. Would they feel all the injuries they healed? Get sick? What would they do with it afterward?

I wrote up a ten-page outline for this story and it was terrible. I mean really, really bad. So I stuffed it in a drawer and forgot about it for years. But one day I found it again, and while the story idea was still ghastly, the idea of taking someone’s pain stuck with me. I kept thinking about pain and healing, and suddenly realized I’d rarely seen anyone portray healing as anything but good before. What if it could be used for evil as well? Could there be a dark side to healing? What would be the consequences?

I couldn’t stop thinking about this. I knew my hero for the book had to be a healer, but how was she unique? What made her different from “normal” healers?  And thus Nya was born, a girl who could heal, but only by shifting pain from person to person. She wanted to help others, but her skill was better used to hurt people, so to help one she had to hurt someone else.

Once I had Nya and knew how her powers worked it was easy to put her into the story and get her into trouble. Because stories are all about interesting people, solving interesting problems in interesting ways.

I hope Nya’s story (and her problems) are as much fun for you to read as they were for me to write.

Battle on!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Janice Hardy always wondered about the darker side of healing. For her fantasy trilogy THE HEALING WARS, she tapped into her own dark side to create a world where healing was dangerous, and those with the best intentions often made the worst choices. Her books include THE SHIFTER, and BLUE FIRE. DARKFALL, the final book of the trilogy, is due out October 4, 2011. She lives in Georgia with her husband, three cats and one very nervous freshwater eel. You can visit her online at www.janicehardy.com, chat with her about writing on her blog, The Other Side of the Story (http://blog.janicehardy.com/), or find her on Twitter @Janice_Hardy.

A warm thanks to Janice Hardy for the lovely guest post written especially to all of our book battle teams. Shifter is a wonderful book and I hope you all enjoy reading it as you get ready to strut your stuff this May.

2011/2012 Feature Book of the Week #3 Girl Stolen by April Henry

FEATURED BOOK OF THE WEEK

GIRL STOLEN BY APRIL HENRY

Sixteen year-old Cheyenne Wilder is sleeping in the back of a car while her mom fills her prescription at the pharmacy. Before Cheyenne realizes what's happening, their car is being stolen--with her inside! Griffin hadn’t meant to kidnap Cheyenne, all he needed to do was steal a car for the others. But once Griffin's dad finds out that Cheyenne’s father is the president of a powerful corporation, everything changes—now there’s a reason to keep her. What Griffin doesn’t know is that Cheyenne is not only sick with pneumonia, she is blind. How will Cheyenne survive this nightmare, and if she does, at what price? (Publisher's summary from Goodreads)

GUEST POST FROM APRIL HENRY

A Confession about Girl, Stolen

I have a confession to make.  In the course of writing Girl, Stolen, I killed myself and blinded my teenage daughter.

Not literally, of course.

A couple of years ago, my daughter and I were walking down an unlit road when she noticed something almost magical.  Each car that came up behind us would throw our shadows ahead of us.  At first the shadows were long and thin, but as the cars got closer, our shadows grew shorter and thicker.  But that wasn’t the only thing.  “Look!” She pointed.  “Our shadows are walking backward.” 

And it was true.  (If you are ever in a similar situation, watch what happens to your shadow.)

At the time my daughter showed me our backward-walking shadows, I already knew I wanted to write a thriller about a blind girl who is kidnapped.  The idea was sparked by a story on our local news. A blind girl, who had gone out to dinner with her step parents, decided to stay in the car while they did some Christmas shopping. Her mom left the keys in the ignition.  A man saw the keys, jumped into the car, and drove off - and then realized there was a girl in the back seat.  Three blocks later, he forced her out.

But I thought:

What if the thief had kept her? 

And what if he was a also a teenager?

And what if his dad was running a chop shop? 

And what if they thought about letting her go - until they learned her family was rich?

But how had the girl become blind? I considered making her blind since birth, but decided it would be too difficult to portray accurately.  So my character would have to have been blind for only a few years.  But how had she lost her sight? 

And when my daughter showed me our shadows, I thought - What if one of these cars hit us?  And killed me? And threw my daughter into a signpost, leaving her blind?  And so that’s what happened to my character and her mother.

Don’t worry, my daughter is fine with this. She’s used to have a writer for a mother - one who sees not what is, but what if.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

I grew up in a small Oregon town, and I still remember my mom teaching me with alphabet flash cards. White with a picture of an object on one side and a letter on the other, those cards glowed with magic.

When I was 12, I sent Roald Dahl, the author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, a short story about a frog named Herman who loved peanut butter. The day he received it, Dahl had lunch with the editor of an international children's magazine and read her the story. She contacted me and asked to publish it.

But as I got older, even though I read all the time, I didn't even dream of being a writer. It would have been like thinking I could fly by flapping my arms really, really hard. Then I got a hospital job with lots of down time and started thinking maybe I could try to write a book about the life and death that surrounded me every day.

That first book I wrote attracted no interest from agents. My second book got me an agent (and we're still together many years and many books later) and nice rejection letters from editors. My third book didn't even get nice rejection letters from editors. My fourth book sold in two days. It was a four-year overnight success.

Since then, I've written nearly a dozen mysteries and thrillers for teens and adults. The first in the Triple Threat Club series, co-written with Lis Wiehl, was on the New York Times bestseller list for four weeks. It was followed by Hand of Fate and Heart of Ice.

My first young adult novel, Shock Point was an ALA Quick Pick, a Top 10 Books for Teens nominee, a New York Library's Books for the Teen Age book, named to the Texas Tayshas list, and a finalist for Philadelphia's Young Readers Choice Award. It was followed by two more teen thrillers: Torched and Girl, Stolen. Girl, Stolen was an ALA Quick Pick and an ALA Best Books for Young Adults.

My books have been short-listed for the Agatha Award, the Anthony Award, and the Oregon Book Award, and chosen twice for Booksense by the independent booksellers of America. They have been translated into Japanese, Spanish, Dutch, German, Polish, and French.

Look for two new books 2012. In April, the fourth Triple Threat Club mystery, Eyes of Justice, will be out. And for teens, The Night She Disappeared, about a pizza delivery girl who goes out to make a delivery and doesn't come back, will be out in March. (Retrieved from author's web site)

2011/2012 Feature Book of the Week #2 Invisible Lines by Mary Amato

FEATURED BOOK OF THE WEEK
INVISIBLE LINES BY MARY AMATO

Trevor is just plain funny, and he’s lucky, he is. Because this year he needs a sense of humor. Moving to Hedley Gardens is hard enough. The move to a fancy new school is even harder—all the kids from “Deadly Gardens” seem to be in the same classes and keep to themselves, but somehow Trevor’s ended up in an advanced science class with kids who seem to have everything and know everything, including how to please their strange new teacher.

But Trevor has plans. This is going to be his year. And he is going to do whatever it takes to make it at this new school. He may not have what these other kids have, but no one is better at juggling in soccer, and his drawing is so good that he’s called the Graffiti Guy.

Xander, a star in the classroom and on the soccer field, has other plans for Trevor. He doesn’t like anyone trespassing on his turf and sabotages Trevor at every opportunity. Who is going to believe Trevor over the school star? Is there any way that Trevor can achieve his goals against a guy who is as good at bullying as he is at everything else he does? (PUBLISHER'S SUMMARY FROM GOOD READS)

GUEST POST FROM MARY AMATO

I am intrigued by the idea for a Battle of the Books and am excited to know that my book, Invisible Lines, is part of it. Often, I write because I am haunted by a character. It is as if the character is real, a person outside of my imagination, who is asking me to write his or her story. My main character for this story, Trevor Musgrove, haunted me for years before I finally wrote his story. While I am writing, I carry the characters in my head everywhere I go. I am almost constantly thinking about them. When I'm finished with all the writing and the many revisions and the book is finally in production, it is always a relief. I'll think about how exhausting it was and decide to take a break. But almost immediately, a new character will begin to haunt me and I find myself pulling out my little notebook and beginning the scribble down that new character's voice. To see my process and all my drafts, watch my video, Writing Invisible Lines: http://www.maryamato.com/new-3-minute-video-on-the-writing-process. Cheers...and remember to "rise above it." --Mary Amato

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mary Amato is an award-winning children’s book author, poet, playwright, and songwriter. Her books have been translated into foreign languages, optioned for television, produced onstage, and has won the children’s choice awards in several states.

I always wanted to be a writer, but it took me a long time to believe that I could actually become one. I started writing at the age of seven when my mother handed me a little spiral notebook and told me to keep a journal of our trip to California. I liked the fact that I could record something in my journal and then read it later. My favorite book as a child was Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh because Harriet was a terrific journal keeper.

I love to write. Not all writers enjoy writing, believe it or not. I especially love to write books for children. I think that’s because I needed books when I was a kid. I turned to books when I was lonely or sad or confused or bored. It is extremely fun to think that kids are reading my books.

I love to play music and write songs. I perform in the Maryland-Washington, D.C. area. I was a dancer and choreographer for many years and still work from time to time in the theater. Currently, I collaborate on ballets with my sister who was my inspiration to dance and is a ballet teacher and choreographer. I was also the co-founder of Firefly Shadow Theater, designed and made many puppets, and directed many shows.

In graduate school, I studied fiction writing and poetry at Johns Hopkins University in Washington, DC. As an undergraduate, I studied special education and dance at Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana. (Retrieved from author's website)

I want to thank Mary Amato for the lovely post and for graciously agreeing to participate in this week's Feature Book of the Week.