Awesome Authors: Anita Liberty

Author Anita Liberty joins us today to discuss being bitter, the origin of blogs, and why she doesn't like to talk about her old books with her current publisher. She's got just the right amount of snark to fit in with the Bradford girls. Welcome!

A short author bio, in her own words: Anita Liberty is the author of The Center of the Universe (Yep, That Would Be Me), How to Heal the Hurt by Hating, and How to Stay Bitter Through the Happiest Times of Her Life. She writes television scripts, screenplays and Facebook status updates. Her website is www.anitaliberty.com, her blog can be found at anitaliberty.blogspot.com, her friendship can be had at www.facebook.com, and her merchandise can be bought at www.cafepress.com/staybitter. Is that enough for you people? Sheesh.

Blogs are a central part of the Bradford Novels universe. If you have a blog, why did you start blogging, and how did you come up with the name for your blog?
That’s so interesting, 'cause blogs are a central part of the Anita Liberty universe, too. Do you think I should call my lawyers? Or were blogs part of the Bradford Novels universe first? Which came first? The Anita Liberty chicken or the Bradford Prep egg? I have a feeling I’m not gonna win this one. I did have an actual blog, for a while, on MySpace. And then I moved out of the MySpace neighborhood and into the Facebook neighborhood and I’m still unpacking my blogs. I keep another blog on blogger.com. But I haven’t quite figured out how to, or what to, write at the moment. My blog is called ANITA LIBERTY’S BITTER BLOG. And I came up with the name—funny story—'cause my name is Anita Liberty and I’m bitter and it’s my blog.

What's your favorite thing about blogging?
I like blogging when I hit on a topic that resonates with readers. Just blogging for the blog of it actually is sort of annoying and feels like navel-gazing. Not that I don’t enjoy gazing at my own navel, but I like to find things to write about that feel fresh and interesting and aren’t just about my own little myopic view on the minutiae of my life. Although sometimes that kind of blog topic can end up getting a lot of response. For instance, the time I wrote about being unable to blog without biting my nails. It brought a lot of nailbitters out of the woodwork and we formed a spontaneous support group. Raise your stubby little fingers high and unite!

What's the difference between a blog and a diary?
Is this a trick question? The answer seems too obvious to be what you’re looking for from me. But maybe you underestimate me and my ability to answer questions in a straightforward manner. My answer to this question is that a diary is a (traditionally) private place to record your thoughts, feelings and, life events and a blog is a (traditionally) public place to record your thoughts, feelings and, life events. Although, when I used to keep a diary, I always wrote with the sense that my words might be made public one day. Like when I die and my audience has an insatiable hunger for more of my writing and Simon Pulse approaches my “estate” and begs them for the rights to publish my private journals posthumously and my “estate” says, “How much ya got?” And Simon Pulse throws opens its coffers and dumps a buttload of cash in the lap of my “estate” and I make way more money dead than I ever did alive.

What are your most recent books? What new projects are you working on now?
My most recent book is The Center of the Universe (Yup, That Would Be Me). That’s the book published by Simon Pulse. It’s my first Young Adult book. It’s sort of a “prequel” to my other two books, How to Heal the Hurt by Hating and How to Stay Bitter Through the Happiest Times of Your Life. Those two were published by another publisher. But I don’t like to talk about that in front of Simon Pulse, 'cause then Simon Pulse gets all insecure and starts interrogating me about my time with the other publisher and what did it have that Simon Pulse doesn’t and then it gets to a point where nothing I say is reassuring enough for Simon Pulse and Simon Pulse would rather sulk than get over it and we end up spending the rest of the evening sitting in uncomfortable silence. (But the make-up sex is always hot.)
As to what new projects I’m currently working on . . . I’m working on some ideas I have for another book, contemplating a screenplay version of the Anita Liberty story, developing a web series, writing an hour-long television pilot, and doing rewrites on a half-hour television pilot I wrote last year that may (or may not) go into production this winter.

Awesome Authors: Kelly Parra!

Kelly Parra is a YA writer who also maintains a fantastic and fun blog, "YA Fresh," with writer Tina Ferraro. Not only did Kelly agree to do a little Q&A for our blog bash, but she has ALSO offered a copy of her book, INVISIBLE TOUCH, as a giveaway to a randomly selected commenter on her post. So comment to enter for a chance to win!

Kelly is a Mexican-Filipino-Italian writer. Through her teen years, her nationality was many times a guessing game by new acquaintances and today she often writes her multicultural characters with the same experiences. She debuted into young adult fiction with the Latina novel GRAFFITI GIRL, a double RITA finalist. Her latest novel is the YA contemporary paranormal, INVISIBLE TOUCH published by MTV Books. Learn more about her and her books at kellyparra.com.

Blogs are a central part of the Bradford Novels universe. They are also, more and more, a central part of the YA-writing universe. When and why did you start blogging?
I first started blogging a couple of years before I sold my first book. Blogs were really taking off and I wanted a connection with other writers during my struggle to publication. After selling my first YA novel, GRAFFITI GIRL, I knew many romance writers at the time but I didn't know how I would connect with other YA readers. I had always felt a blog needed to give something to readers that they would be interested in. Not just about my own YA books but about other authors, and soon YA Fresh was born. Not long after it launched, I asked my fab critique partner, Tina Ferraro, if she would like to join me and luckily she did. It's been a great couple of years!

What's your favorite thing about blogging? As someone who coordinates between a variety of different blogs, how do you stay organized?
My favorite thing about blogging is the connection with other writers and readers! It's such a blast to share your likes and dislikes, and all the book gossip with your friends. I do coordinate between group blogs and guest blogs and it can get overwhelming at times. I'm a total list person and I write down dates to try and keep me sane. :)

What are the pros and cons of running a group blog, as opposed to blogging strictly on a personal site?
One pro of running team blogs is having others to share a variety of topics with a different spin to keep readers interested. I can't really think of a con—I feel group blogs work really well if organized. Blogging on your own can be a little boring and it's hard to bring something fresh to readers.

What's the difference between a blog and a diary? How confessional do you like a blog to get? What sort of blog posts most appeal to you? What are some of your favorite blogs (book or otherwise) out there right now?
Diaries are for the writer's eyes only! A blog can be read by hundreds of readers and can reach farther beyond. On YA Fresh, we try and keep it light. Blog posts that appeal to me are background news on writers and their books. Its so fun to follow a favorite writer through their writing journey. Some of my favorite blogs are: Teenfictioncafe.blogspot.com and YAWriters.blogspot.com.
GoldenGirl is full of scandals and exposed secrets. What was the biggest scandal at your high school? Did your classmates discover any of your deep, dark secrets?
There was always a scandal in high school—from fights to party stories, whatever topic that could keep the gossip going. I'm not sure if any of my dark secrets were whispered behind hands...nothing I can think of at the moment!

Sure, sure...So, what’s the worst thing you ever did to a friend? Are you still friends with her or him?
I started talking to an ex-boyfriend of one of my friends. They'd been broken up for a long time, and she told me it didn't bother her. But later down the road when I stopped talking to the guy my friend ended up back with him and admitted it had bothered her. I wish she would have told me, but then I should have just brushed him off. Friends stick around longer than dates! I run into her every once in a while and we still talk like years haven't gone by.

What are your most recent books? What new projects are you working on now?
My latest release is INVISIBLE TOUCH (MTV Books/October, 2008). The story is about a girl who sees "signs" or symbols on individuals and must piece the signs together in order to save them from unfortunate fates. TeensReadToo gave Touch the Gold Award of Excellence and bestselling author Laurie Faria Stolarz called it a blend of mystery, romance, and deep and dangerous secrets.

Right now, I'm stepping out of my comfort zone and writing an urban fantasy that takes place in the near future. It's been an exciting and fun challenge!

Thank you for letting me join in, Micol!

Awesome Authors: Elisabeth Wolfe

Today's Awesome Author is Elisabeth (Koller) Wolfe, one of the authors of Click! The Girl's Guide to Knowing What You Want and How to Make It Happen. She was the only cheerleader in Richmond, Virginia to be kicked off the squad for chronic lateness due to humidity hair havoc. Thankfully, Elisabeth refocused her energy and moved to New York City, where she became an attorney, started a production company, and won an Emmy Award. Check out her book website: www.clickthegirlsguide.com.

What's your favorite thing about blogging?
That people actually read our blog.

What's the difference between a blog and a diary?
I would never write something unkind on a blog, but anything goes in my diary, since it’s for my eyes only. My latest diary’s cover is a yummy faux leather chocolate brown that’s so deceptively cozy looking that it’s shocking to read the bitch sessions that comprise the first 50 pages. Getting negative thoughts out of my head and onto paper is my mental maintenance. Seeing things written down helps me gain just a bit more perspective.

Last week, I brought my diary with me to the local nail salon/hang out figuring I would let it all hang out on paper during my pedicure. It wasn’t until 10 pm that evening that it hit me. I had left my diary at the nail drying station. Panic set in. That night, I had nightmares of feet soaking acquaintances reading passages out loud and laughing hysterically. What if one of the friends I had written about was among them? What if someone stole my diary?

I was waiting outside when the salon opened the next morning. Thank goodness my diary was still there. As she handed it back to me, receptionist raised one eyebrow and said “Oh…so you’re the one who left this.” Suffice it to say that my diary will never leave my house again!

Spencer Grace Kelly, the main character in GoldenGirl, is named after her distant relative, the Princess of Monaco. What’s your favorite Grace Kelly movie, and why?
I remember seeing Rear Window and To Catch a Thief in my college film class and enjoying them both immensely. I was most impressed by Grace Kelly’s powerful presence, her beauty, and her wardrobe.

GoldenGirl is full of scandals and exposed secrets. What was the biggest scandal at your high school? Did your classmates discover any of your deep, dark secrets?
I consulted my bff from high school and neither of us could come up with anything scandalous that I can put here. No one got much dirt on me, thankfully.

What’s the worst thing you ever did to a friend? Are you still friends with her or him?
I broke up with a boyfriend over the phone. Back then, breaking up on the phone was a big no no. But these days, it’s more the norm. Never spoke to the guy again, but he recently popped up on Facebook. I wonder what he’d do if I sent him a message.

Awesome Authors: Terra Elan McVoy

Today's Awesome Author is Terra Elan McVoy, who wrote the upcoming debut novel Pure and is also the manager of Little Shop of Stories, an independent bookstore in Decatur, GA. She was born in Tallahassee, FL and is currently in pursuit of the perfect cupcake recipe.

Blogs are a central part of the Bradford Novels universe. What's the difference between a blog and a diary?
Well a diary is usually very private. Often it has a lock and you hide it under your bed. Maybe you have some kind of trap rigged up so you can tell if someone else has read it. But a blog? That is for everyone! Even your grandma could look you up and read it!

Spencer Grace Kelly, the main character in GoldenGirl, is named after her distant relative, the Princess of Monaco. What's your favorite Grace Kelly movie, and why?
Rear Window is my favorite because she's so lovely and calm and suave in it. Plus—duh—the outfits.

GoldenGirl is full of scandals and exposed secrets. What was the biggest scandal at your high school? Did your classmates discover any of your deep, dark secrets?
A really big scandal that happened at my high school centered around my biology teacher. We were doing our standard section on the birds and the bees, and he gave us an assignment that required us to catalog all the available contraceptives at a drugstore. Some parents complained. Our teacher was asked to apologize for giving the offending assignment but he wouldn't, and as a consequence he left the school and went to teach elsewhere. We were all very upset by this and had t-shirts made and contacted the news and staged a walk-out and were in the local paper and everything. This had nothing to do with any of my deep, dark secrets though, which fortunately I kept to myself!

What's the worst thing you ever did to a friend? Are you still friends with her or him?
I think probably the worst thing I ever did was to not ever forgive one friend of mine for something bad she did to me. I am still not speaking to her.

What are your most recent books? What new projects are you working on now?
My first novel, Pure, is due out in April of this year. I am working on putting together a second novel as we speak!

Awesome Authors: Billy Merrell

Today's another Double Feature, as we have Awesome Author Billy Merrell stopping by for a chat. He is the author of Talking in the Dark, a poetry memoir (Scholastic, 2003), and a co-editor for The Full Spectrum: A New Generation of Writing About LGBTQ and Other Identities (Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2006), which received a 2006 Lambda Literary Award. He received his M.F.A. in Poetry from Columbia University and is currently Web Development Coordinator for Poets.org, the award winning website of the Academy of American Poets. Visit him online at www.billymerrell.com.

Why did you start blogging, and how did you come up with the name for your blog? I started blogging in 2006 as a way to publicly participate in NaPoWriMo (National Poetry Writing Month). Both an informal offshoot of National Poetry Month and a blatant ripoff of National Novel Writing Month, NaPoWriMo challenges poets to compose and post a poem a day during April. I was studying poetry at Columbia at the time and writing poems most days anyway, so why not? A blog was born. Since then, I've posted many poems and the occasional link to something that inspires me. As my poems became longer, posting single excerpts made less sense, and it's been a while since I've posted actively. Now that I think about it, maybe I'll start blogging again. Since I'm out of that long poem phase.

What's your favorite thing about blogging? It's a great way to quietly put yourself out there. To "publish"—to literally make your work public, without claiming anything about the quality. The poems I post to my blog are ones I at the time deem successful in one way or another. Which is very different from me thinking they are "good" or wanting to put them in front of readers right away. Instead, I can let the readers find the poems on their own. And it maybe means more when they do.

What's the difference between a blog and a diary? Since my day job is Web Development, I find it hard not to answer technically. A blog is a publishing format, and a diary is a specific category of journaling. My blog is nothing like a diary. It's more like an ongoing chapbook.

Spencer Grace Kelly, the main character in GoldenGirl, is named after her distant relative, the Princess of Monaco. What's your favorite Grace Kelly movie, and why?
Rear Window (1954). Hitchcock is way scarier than all the Saw movies put together.

What's the worst thing you ever did to a friend? Are you still friends with her or him?
Well, there was this one time... I was friends with this guy and I didn't know I had a crush on him. I mean, I did... but I didn't know that my crush had morphed into scary crush. And then I was introduced to this guy that he liked... and even though I didn't really like the guy I ended up dating HIM as some sort of creepy way to seem desirable to the one I really liked. But it all blew up in my face. Luckily for me, and the good people of Gainesville, Florida, I met my now husband Nico Medina (also a writer!) over the course of that pyscho cycle. I can now go back to being a good person. Are we friends? Yes, according to Facebook.

What are your most recent books? What new projects are you working on now?
In 2006, I co-edited The Full Spectrum, an anthology of writing about queer experience by young writers aged 13 to 23. Poems and stories have also appeared in a number of anthologies, most recently The Best Gay Poetry 2008. In October of 2009, you should also watch out for Go Ahead, Ask Me, a book of irreverent conversation starters I wrote with my husband. I still laugh reading some of those questions. Good times. Separate from book projects, I'm hard at work preparing for National Poetry Month, which promises to be the best yet. Carry a poem in your pocket on April 30—national Poem In Your Pocket Day.

Awesome Authors: kc dyer

Today we're very lucky to have Awesome Author kc dyer with us!
Here's a short author bio, in her own words: kc dyer is a professional liar, prevaricator, and provocateur. Her published work includes: SEEDS OF TIME (2002), SECRET OF LIGHT (2003), SHADES OF RED (2005), MS.ZEPHYR'S NOTEBOOK (2007), and A WALK THROUGH A WINDOW (2009). More in the works!
She can be found blogging at leftwriter and Darby Speaks, or hanging about her website at kcdyer.com. Facebook fanpage can (not so surprisingly) be found at kc dyer. (Darby has a fan-page, too, right HERE.) She tweets @kcdyer on Twitter. You can email her at contact@kcdyer.com.

Blogs are a central part of the Bradford Novels universe. If you have a blog, why did you start blogging, and how did you come up with the name for your blog?
I've been blogging for almost three years—started in 2006. For me, it's a great way to stay connected with the people who read my books and the people in my writing world—friends, other writers and industry folks—who may not live where I do geographically.
My blog is called leftwriter. I called it that because I like to look at things from both sides, and while I blog a lot about my writing, I also blog a bit about the writing world and everything connected to it.
I blog a LOT. I run the blog for the Surrey International Writers' Conference, and I contribute to other blogs all the time. I'm a regular contributor to the Children's Writers & Illustrators of BC (CWILLBC) blog. And, just recently, I've started a new blog for the main character in my new book. The book is called A Walk Through a Window, and the character's name is Darby Christopher. I thought it would be fun to let her out into the world a little before her book arrives in March, so she's got a blog, too!

What's your favorite thing about blogging?
I think my favourite thing about blogging is the connection I can have with people all around the world. I get hits on my blog from all over the world and I have a lot of fun connecting with other readers and writers on the 'Net.

What's the difference between a blog and a diary?
For some people, not much. They put their lives online for the world to see, and for them this can be a really cathartic experience. For me? Not so much. Occasionally I'll run a 'Dog Blog' post on my blog, and I talk a bit about every day things, but in general all the personal stuff is off limits. I try to be really respectful of my kids' lives and try to stay away from posting about them online. (Besides—they are bigger than I am now. I'm not crazy!)

Spencer Grace Kelly, the main character in GoldenGirl, is named after her distant relative, the Princess of Monaco. What's your favorite Grace Kelly movie, and why?
Hmmm. I think either To Catch A Thief with Cary Grant or Rear Window with Jimmy Stewart. I love those adventure stories (and the leading men . . . )

What are your most recent books?
My most recent novel is Ms. Zephyr's Notebook. It was published in 2006, and the story of Cleo and Logan is told inside the pages of a teacher's notebook. Here's the blurb from my website:
When Logan Kemp hurls himself into a rugby scrum one fall morning, he has no idea that by afternoon he'll be fighting for his life. Worse, Logan learns the only other patient on his ward is a troubled girl named Cleo who may not just be hospitalized for a broken wrist. When all he wants is his regular life back, the thought of Cleo throwing away her own leaves Logan determined to change her mind.
Cleopatra Jones wants to design the perfect life; a teenage rugby player and a few well-meaning health professionals are not going to stand in her way. But Cleo soon finds that life—and even death—can interfere with the best-laid plans.
Burdened with prejudice and pain, these teens reinforce the walls that have kept them safe in their own worlds. But the secrets in a teacher's tattered notebook show them how the word sustenance can have more than one meaning. And facing the biggest challenge of their lives, Logan and Cleo discover something about the powerful forces of redemption and forgiveness.

My new book is coming out in March this year. It's called A Walk Through a Window, and it's a ghost story and a time travel story all wrapped up in one. Here's the blurb:
If you had a chance to step through a window to the past, would you take it?
A Walk Through a Window is the story of Darby, a young girl forced to spend the summer with grandparents she doesn't know in a place she feels she can never belong. But when a boy down the street extends a hand, it is more than friendship he offers. Together they discover a magical stone window frame that transports them to the very centre of the dramas of our past: the Underground Railroad; the coffin ships of the Irish Potato Famine; and even the Inuit as they crossed the Bering Land Bridge into North America.
Over the course of the long, very strange summer, Darby is forced to question part of own her life. And as tragedy threatens her family, that magical walk through a window offers Darby new insight into the people she has always taken for granted—and changes forever her perception of her country.

What new projects are you working on now?
Right now I'm working on two new books—the sequel to Darby's story is in the works, and I am working on a new series that's a kind of steam-punk time travel fantasy. I always like to keep things interesting!

Awesome Authors: Lauren Myracle

Micol says: Lauren Myracle has been a favorite author of mine ever since I heard her read from Rhymes with Witches at a Barnes and Noble in NYC. Her book was grabby and girlie and spooky all at once...the perfect precursor to her most recent release, Bliss, about a girl who moves from a commune to an idyllic suburb only to learn that her new picture-perfect school is, in fact, perfectly haunted.

Of course, Lauren is perhaps best known for her best-selling "Internet Girls" series, TTYL, TTFN, and L8R, G8R, which are are written completely in IM.

A Vermont College alumn who writes in innovative, media-savvy formats? Why does that sound so familiar?

Lauren is WAY busy working on her newest IM book AS WE SPEAK (which, yay!), but—OMG!—she was kind enough to shorthand a few questions for us.

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Best thing about writing entirely in IM's:
oh, baby! best thing = not having to play by the rules of SCARY STANDARD ENGLISH. or maybe best thing = no setting! me hate setting! me luv dialogue! or maybe best thing = pretending to be a kid again and just being goofy? easier to be goofy in IMs then in a serious literary novel. which, uh, yeah. isn't likely to come from me anyways... ;-)

Most scandalous thing that has ever happened to you, or to a friend because of you? Bonus points if said scandal involves im/email/blogging: oh, dahlink. like i'd ever share my secrets with the whole internet world. i will happily share a friend's secrets, tho! she will go unnamed. or rather, she will go by...Mathilde, and be sure to pronounce it all Frenchy.

well. once upon a time, Mathilde had a bf that none of her bff's liked. her bff's started behaving VAIR VAIR badly, by not inviting Mathilde to events for fear she'd bring bf. at least, that's what Mathilde suspected was going on--and then one sad day, her suspicions were confirmed. she got this email, c? and it was sent to the whole group of bff's, *including* Mathilde. only, it wasn't for Mathilde's eyes, oh no it wasn't. it was full of stuff like, "oh, i just hate Bertram, don't u?" and "i don't even want to ask Mathilde to book club, cuz what if she brings B?" and "u know our party next friday? let's say we cancelled it, k? i mean, more mathilde...i feel really guilty...but I CAN'T TAKE IT IF SHE BRINGS B!!!!!"

well. so mathilde gets, reads, weeps. (i wld 2, wldn't u?) then, BAM! a 2nd email appears in her inbox saying, "M! IGNORE THE OTHER EMAIL! DO NOT READ!!!!!"

yeah, uh-huh. can u say, "2 late, u traitorous bff?" so that is the sad, sad story of Mathilde, and what can go wrong with the dangerous REPLY ALL button. +shakes finger sternly+ consider yrself warned!

Your #1 must-read blog: oh. well, um, yeah. hmmm. i know!!!!! my sister's! +puffs chest importantly+ her name is Susan Rebecca White, and she's vair vair fab, and her website (where her blog is) is susanrebeccawhite.com. and guess what?!!! +squeals and jumps around spazzerifically+ she's a writer, 2! a really awesometatiousful writer!!!! and her first novel came out, like, yesterday, and it's called Bound South, and there is intrigue! lust! hilarity! wickedness! it all goes down in the pastel-tinted South, which susan knows all about and discusses very amusingly in her blog. so that's my must-read blog, and y'all must read it 2. promise? fabulous. l8r, g8r! <3 <3 <3

Awesome Authors: Lynn Weingarten

In addition to being an AMAZING writer, Lynn Weingarten is one of my bestest of friendlies.
When we are not tapping away on our respective projects at a downtown coffee shop, we are generally distracting each other via IM or email. Lynn was kind enough to take some time to procrastinate with us here at the Blog Bash.

Blogs are a central part of the Bradford Novels universe. If you have a blog, why did you start blogging, and how did you come up with the name for your blog?
My blog was started for me by a very, very nice friend of mine who called me one day and said, “Hey, I bought you a website today. It’s going to be your blog!” and then set the whole thing up and just showed me how to use it. The name is based on a funny made-up word one of my nieces once said.

I also have a Livejournal that I started not too long ago. I think I’ve only used it once so far, because I keep forgetting that I have it. But any day now I might actually start posting in it! That one’s just my full-name at Livejournal. I wanted to make that my public one since I keep the other one semi-anonymously.

What's your favorite thing about blogging? The fame mostly. If you go to Google and search for the phrase, “What if you stick something up your nose?” My site is the number 1 hit. I am very proud of this.

What's the difference between a blog and a diary? Diaries are for secrets! Blogs are for photographs of funny stuff you see in the supermarket and drawings of dogs standing on top of cupcakes.

Dogs and cupcakes=two of my most favoritest things. Okay, so, Spencer Grace Kelly, the main character in GoldenGirl, is named after her distant relative, the Princess of Monaco. What’s your favorite Grace Kelly movie, and why?
Rear Window, because it is the only one I’ve ever seen.

GoldenGirl is full of scandals and exposed secrets. What was the biggest scandal at your high school? Did your classmates discover any of your deep, dark secrets?
There was always some scandalous rumor or other floating around. I remember once hearing a story about a particular girl in my grade doing some very private, very dirty stuff at a party, in the kitchen, with a big group of people watching. This very well may have been just a rumor,
but when I bumped into her in NYC just a couple years back and all I could think was OOOOOOO!

My group of friends all mostly knew all my secrets, but thankfully they were very good at keeping them.

That's what you think! ;) What’s the worst thing you ever did to a friend? Are you still friends with her or him?
Unless my subconscious is blocking something out, I don’t think I’ve ever done anything particularly awful to anyone. My best-friend in high school and I definitely got in a lot of random fights, including one that left us not speaking for a few months when we were 17 or so. But that was almost 13 years ago at this so I do not remember what the fight was about. We’re still close friends.

What are your most recent books? What new projects are you working on now?
My most recent (and only!) book is called Wherever Nina Lies, which was just released by Scholastic on Feb 1, 2009. It’s about a girl named Ellie who takes off on a cross-country road trip in search of her missing older sister Nina. Along for the ride (well, doing the driving) is a hot and mysterious guy named Sean who Ellie knows very little about. Lots of scandalous stuff happens along the way. Sometimes when I think about the fact that my parents are going to read certain sections of this book, I cringe.

Now I’m working on a new YA project, a picture book idea, and an article about the time I got to be in the studio audience of the Maury Povich show.

We're definitely going to want to see that article! Thanks for stopping by, Lynn!

Awesome Authors: Kristen Tracy

We have the delightful Kristen Tracy with us today for Awesome Authors. Her Q&A is pretty awesome in itself, since it involves one of the most effective (and dangerous) school pranks we've seen yet, a Carmex caper, and how to get revenge on the guy who dumps you.

Kristen lives in San Francisco, where she writes middle-grade and teen novels. She teaches at 826 Valencia and is a volunteer gardener on Alcatraz. Also, she writes quite a bit of poetry. Visit her at www.kristentracy.com

What's the difference between a blog and a diary? Hmm. Diaries don't have comment sections. Also, I think it's understood that your diary is where you go to bleed in private after some dumb guy breaks your heart and your blog is where you go to bleed all over the blogosphere (and possibly publicize what the dumb guy did).

GoldenGirl is full of scandals and exposed secrets. What was the biggest scandal at your high school? Did your classmates discover any of your deep, dark secrets? Nobody ever discovered any of my deep dark secrets, because, emotionally speaking, I have a pretty secure vault. But my high school was always experiencing weird scandals, because my class liked playing tricks. One of the biggest involved the lockers. They were set up like dominoes around the Commons area. And one day some sophomore guys decided to knock them over. And so they pushed the front one down and they all fell. But they didn't warn everybody. Or they didn't give people enough time or something, because one girl got stuck in there and her ear got torn. Not all the way off. But I'm pretty sure there was a noticeable scar. Because after the bandages came off, she wore a lot of hoodies and hats.

What's the worst thing you ever did to a friend? Are you still friends with her or him? I'm pretty good to my friends, so this is a tough question. Okay. I thought of one. In high school I had a falling out with a friend of mine. We'll call her Maple. It was a small fight. But Maple was very emotional, so it ended up becoming a rather significant spat. I liked Maple. She was sparky. Anyway, Maple and I were sharing a locker and she kicked me out. (For some reason, I couldn't get my own locker to open up on a consecutive basis, so she let me use hers. She had a top locker that was near most of my classes, so this was ideal for me). Anyway, I'm pretty sure that after I was officially kicked out of Maple's locker that I used to go back inside the locker and hide her Carmex. (She had a serious Carmex/flavored lip gel/tube Vaseline addiction.) I never took her Carmex. But I'd move it around. We're not still friends anymore. Maple moved very far away. Also, this may or may not be a true story.

What are your most recent books? What new projects are you working on now? My first middle-grade novel, Camille McPhee Fell Under the Bus, is coming out this summer. (It's based on an incident where I fell underneath my school bus in grade school.) And I've got a teen novel set in Prague that I'm working on that has two best friends, a crazy person, and lots of hot dudes in it. It'll be out next year.

Awesome Authors: Kristen Kemp

Kristen Kemp has written 7 young adult novels for Scholastic, including Breakfast at Bloomingdale's, The Dating Diaries, and I Will Survive. She's a longtime freelancer for women's magazines such as Cosmo, Glamour, Self, and Seventeen. She currently writes till her fingers turn purple for CafeMom.com. She lives in Montclair, NJ with her twin girls, a baby boy, a big Swedish husband, her cat, and her new puppy.

Blogs are a central part of the Bradford Novels universe. Why did you start blogging, and how did you come up with the name for your blog?
I have a few blogs, but I won't name them here because they're not cool. Well, okay. One is http://www.cafemom.com/dailybuzz/healthy_living. I do it because they pay me. The second is a labor of love, www.montclairkids.com. I would love to have a personal one eventually, too.

What's your favorite thing about blogging?
I just get to be myself and make jokes and not worry so much about technical things, like grammar. Kidding, grammar is very important, but it's not essential in blogging like it is everywhere else. Speed is more important than grammatical perfection--both is even better.

What's the difference between a blog and a diary?
Blogs are more immediate. They're more frequent. They're juicier, too.

Spencer Grace Kelly, the main character in GoldenGirl, is named after her distant relative, the Princess of Monaco. What's your favorite Grace Kelly movie, and why?
Rear Window. She's just so beautiful. I'm not actually old enough to know a lot of Grace Kelly movies. My mother, though, is a diehard fan.

GoldenGirl is full of scandals and exposed secrets. What was the biggest scandal at your high school?
The football team was jumping off a railroad bridge once into the Ohio River. I grew up there, in Louisville, KY. I wrote a story about it for the school newspaper, and the local TV news picked up the story. We all got put on probation. It sucked.

What's the worst thing you ever did to a friend? Are you still friends with her or him?
I sent a hurtful email about a friend to that friend accidentally. Thank goodness she forgave me. I had to send her a voodoo doll with my name on it and take her to many nice dinners. But she's my best friend, and she did forgive me.

What are your most recent books? What new projects are you working on now? Breakfast at Bloomingdale's. I'm writing health, diet, and nutrition for a few websites, and I hope to start on a young adult book about a fairy with a short attention span and boy problems soon.

Awesome Authors: Deborah Reber

Today we're very fortunate to have Deborah Reber visiting the Bradford Novels blog. She is a teen advocate, speaker, and author with a really amazing blog called Smart Girls Know!

Blogs are a central part of the Bradford Novels universe. If you have a blog, why did you start blogging, and how did you come up with the name for your blog?
My blog is called Smart Girls Know, and I started it in early 2007. The name comes from an idea for a book for girls I had about five years ago called "What Smart Girls Know." The whole idea behind the book was to empower girls to tap into how smart and capable they already are, and
how they have the power to handle any challenges they face and create the life they want. I haven't been able to get that book published (yet!), so I decided to share the ideas behind it with girls by creating my blog. Since then, Smart Girls Know has turned into a place for me to connect directly with girls about everything from issues affecting teens lives to posting info about contests, book reviews, interviews, and updates on my other projects.

What's your favorite thing about blogging? Having a place to interact directly with teens and having an outlet to share info I think girls need to know about.

What's the difference between a blog and a diary? I think they can be one and the same, and probably are for many bloggers. But to me, a diary or journal is a place where I write about my innermost thoughts, frustrations, dreams, and goals . . . it's often the kind of content I would definitely not want anyone else to see! My blog is a place to share opinions about ideas and situations in life that I find important or interesting.

Spencer Grace Kelly, the main character in GoldenGirl, is named after her distant relative, the Princess of Monaco. What's your favorite Grace Kelly movie, and why? Without question, Alfred Hitchcock's To Catch a Thief. You can't beat the combination of Cary Grant and Grace Kelly!

GoldenGirl is full of scandals and exposed secrets. What was the biggest scandal at your high school? Did your classmates discover any of your deep, dark secrets? The biggest scandal I remember happening at my high school involved a, shall we say, "inappropriate" relationship between a teacher and a student. I went to a small school and once the cat was out the bag, it was the talk of the school for months. As far as my own deep, dark
secrets go, the only thing that comes to mind is a hookup between me and another classmate that happened during a Spanish class trip to Spain. My thinking was that "what happened in Spain, stays in Spain," but apparently the guy I hooked up with thought differently. . . .

What's the worst thing you ever did to a friend? Are you still friends with her or him?
Ugh. This happened 20 years ago and it still kills me to think about it. My friend had a tremendous crush on this guy, but he thought they were only friends. Then he decided that I was the love of his life. So I went for it. Of course, the friend hated me, and the relationship with the boy didn't last. Luckily, I was able to repair the relationship with the friend, but it wasn't easy and it took a couple of years. We're in touch through Facebook today, but I still wonder how she could ever have fully forgiven me for such a betrayal (hanging head in shame . . . )

What are your most recent books? What new projects are you working on now? My last two books for young women are Chill: Stress-Reducing Techniques for a More Balanced, Peaceful You and In Their Shoes: Extraordinary Women Describe Their Amazing Careers, which are both aimed at helping girls live their best lives. Right now, I'm working on my first YA novel. It's been a blast so far, so stay tuned. . . .

Awesome Authors: Julie Linker

Spencer's a big fan of tiaras, so I'm sure she'd approve of our guest today, author Julie Linker. Julie's first two books BOTH have tiaras on the cover, so she's obviously made of awesome.

Here's a short author bio, in her words: Julie Linker is the incredibly witty, charming, and fashionable author of the young adult novels, Disenchanted Princess and the recently released Crowned. To experience her awesomeness for yourself and read her blog, go to julielinker.com.

*The above bio may or may not contain a few slight exaggerations. However, the names of the books and the website are true.*

What's your favorite thing about blogging? I probably shouldn’t admit this, but I’m not all that in love with blogging. Well, that’s not exactly true—I like blogging, but I always feel guilty when I’m doing it because I feel like I should be writing for “real.” You know, on a book. That being said, my favorite thing about blogging is definitely reading the comments people post. So people, read my blog and post something!!

What's the difference between a blog and a diary? For me, the main difference between a blog and a diary is that the whole world can read my blog, but I would be MORTIFIED if even a single person read my diary. In fact, I’m really bad about shredding my diaries, which is a big no-no for a writer because you can get good writing material from them. But I’m too paranoid! Not because I’m living a secret scandalous life or anything but because I usually only write in my diary when I’m mad or upset. So every entry is like “You won’t believe what so-and-so said to me today. She’s so mean. And her hair is hideous.” Or, if something bad has happened and I’m sad, there will be a whole bunch of entries like “Life is pointless. Nothing makes sense. I can’t take this anymore.” (Because I’m very melodramatic in my diary.) But the deal is—I don’t really *mean* any of those things. I’m just scribbling them down in the heat of passion. It’s not an accurate reflection of my true feelings, which is why I wouldn’t want anyone to see it.
A blog, on the other hand, is something you want other people to read. You write a blog entry knowing and hoping people are going to read it. I actually think about what I’m writing in my blog because I don’t want to a) hurt anyone’s feelings; or b) sound like (too big of) a dork/moron.
So, Blog=public. Diary=private.

Spencer Grace Kelly, the main character in GoldenGirl, is named after her distant relative, the Princess of Monaco. What’s your favorite Grace Kelly movie, and why? This is a hard question! I love Rear Window, but I also love To Catch a Thief. Cary Grant, the French Riviera, scads of diamonds—who can resist that? But Rear Window has Jimmy Stewart, lots of spying, and a dead wife buried in the yard. And Grace Kelly wears fabulous outfits in both of them. As in, they’re so gorgeous they make me want to cry. Especially the white gown in Thief. You know the one I’m talking about.
Sigh. I wish they still made movies like that.

GoldenGirl is full of scandals and exposed secrets. What was the biggest scandal at your high school? Did your classmates discover any of your deep, dark secrets? Now I’m depressed. Because I’m racking my brain and I can’t come up with a single scandalous story from my high school. Sure, there were a few unplanned pregnancies and a couple of people who got busted for drugs, but as far as a big, juicy scandal . . . yeah, I’ve got nothing. And none of my classmates discovered any of my deep, dark secrets because I didn’t have any. In high school, I was—how can I put this delicately? A dork. A very sheltered, very innocent dork.

What’s the worst thing you ever did to a friend? Are you still friends with her or him?
My BFF and I went away to college together, along with a guy from our high school who was our really good friend. He was really great and we liked him a lot, but once we got on campus he started being really clingy. Siamese-twin clingy. It was smothering. And it was starting to interfere with our dating lives because everybody assumed he was either mine or my BFF’s boyfriend. We tried to talk to him about it, but he just didn’t get it. So, we ditched him. And not in a nice way. I still feel bad about it. Ashamed. We found him on the internet a few years ago and thought about contacting him and apologizing, but we didn’t have the guts. Maybe someday we’ll do it.

What are your most recent books? What new projects are you working on now?
My first book, Disenchanted Princess, was released in July ’07 and my second book, Crowned, just came out in November. Crowned is about two rival beauty queens, so if you like pageants, you should check it out! Currently, I’m working on another YA, but it doesn’t have a title yet. It involves the the war in Iraq and is a bit more “serious” than my previous two books.

Awesome Authors: Carrie Jones!

Carrie Jones is the veriest. And that is all there is to say on the matter.

Just kidding. Here are a few reasons WHY Carrie is so very very very.
1) She is incredibly talented and has published four novels in the last two years. WTH, Carrie? Do you ever sleep?
2) She graduated from VCFA and is extremely dedicated toward being all helpful-like to younger people in the program, like myself. In fact, she played a crucial role in me selling my little labor of love, SO PUNK ROCK, which comes out this summer.
3) She writes about pixies.
4) She seems to have a direct line to John Wayne.

Take it away, Carrie!

Name: Carrie Jones

Blog URL: www.carriejonesbooks.com or http://carriejones.livejournal.com/

Blogs are a central part of the Bradford Novels universe. They are also, more and more, a central part of the YA-writing universe. When and why did you start blogging?

I started blogging when I was at Vermont College of Fine Art's MFA Program for Writing for Children.

Writers Sarah Aronson, Ed Briant, Bethany Hegederus and Kellye Carter Crocker were all blogging so that they could keep up with each other during the semester. They were just so damn cool that when they told me I should blog to and be their livejournal 'friend' I was all, "Oh! Oh! Oh! They want to be friends? With me? Oh yay!!! Happy dance!!!"

I started blogging.

Then I sold my first book, TIPS ON HAVING A GAY (ex) BOYFRIEND to Andrew Karre who was at Flux. And he said to me, "Writer. You must blog. You must continue to blog." So I did.


What's your favorite thing about blogging? Do you ever worry that between your own blog and Through the Tollbooth (the VCFA alum blog mentioned above), you'll run out of words?

My favorite thing is that I'm allowed to be my own true, neurotic, quirky self in my blog. I can make my dog have entires. I can make my cat have entries. And my other favorite part is how amazingly nice people are who read my blog. These people have lives and loves and careers. They have mad, passionate ups and downs in their lives and they still take the time to:
1. Read my blog
2. Comment on my blog
3. Care
It's the caring aspect that really gets to me. We hear all the time about the dangers of the cyber world; about the horrors of human nature, but the truth is that there are so many amazing, giving, beautiful people out there. Okay, yeah, some of them might love Bic pens a little too much, but still... They care. I love reading other people's blogs and having them read mine. I think it's all loving and warm and toasty like roast vegetables and hot chocolate on a snowy day.

What's the difference between a blog and a diary? How confessional do you like a blog to get? What sort of blog posts most appeal to you? What are some of your favorite blogs (book or otherwise) out there right now?

Well, a diary is for yourself. A blog is read by others (possibly). So there's a definite private vs. public aspect. Even though I seem terribly confessional on my own blog I really keep my biggest troubles and secrets to myself. I might hint at them occasionally (like this week actually) but I never tell. That's how I am in my un-blog life, too. I'm not good about telling the big deep hurts or truths.

When it comes to other people's blogs I really don't care how confessional they are. It's like books. I like all kinds. Some are factual. Some are emo. Some are just plain weird. It's not up to me to decide what other people should do with their space.

My favorite blogs are sinful pleasures really. I love cuteoverload, which is terribly cute-oriented of me. But it's so fluffy. And it has puppies on it almost every day. I always read Galleycat because Ron Hogan just rocks. Anyone who hugs me always gets read by me. It's like a Carrie Jones rule or something. Cynthia Leitich Smith hugs me, but even if she didn't I'd still read her blogs because they are full of usefull writer news. Same thing with Gwenda Bond's. I also have to admit that I read the superficial, which is a horrible, snarky sinfest of mean celebrity news. Barb Candidad (Fashionista_35 on livejournal) has a blog that just makes me so happy whether she's posting hot man pictures or talking about what she thinks the book business should be like.


We've got some Bradford characters who are hooked on The Superficial, too! GoldenGirl is full of scandals and exposed secrets. What was the biggest scandal at your high school? Did your classmates discover any of your deep, dark secrets?


The biggest scandal at my high school? It was probably about one of the teachers and one of the students having the sort of relationship that teachers and students are NOT supposed to have.
Or else it was just: Can you believe how much product Joe puts in his hair?

That was very important back then.

I was such a goodie-goodie that I had NO secrets. Oh. Wait. Yes. I did have secrets, terribly dark secrets, but nobody knew them. People still don't know them actually. I am very good at keeping secrets so do NOT even try, Micol. I swear I'll never tell.


Spoil my fun! So, what’s the worst thing you ever did to a friend? Are you still friends with her or him?

The first week of college one of my guy friends was really trashed at a party and he came up to me and said, "Carrie. I think you're gorgeous and you are a terribly sweet girl and I totally have the hots for you but it is just way too early to have a relationship with anyone right now. I mean, we only just got here."
And even though I didn't like this guy that way AT ALL I was all, "Whoah... Did I just get dumped by an ultra-pale accounting major that I don't even want? Whoah... ego.... Whoah.... Anger management therapy coming up."

And aloud I actually said (in a horribly mean way), "Woody, I don't want to have a relationship with anyone either and if I did, it sure as (insert swear word) wouldn't be with you."

Then I pivoted and turned away.

That was sooooooo mean of me.

And no we aren't friends now.

And yes people really called him Woody.


What are your most recent books? What new projects are you working on now?

My most recent book is NEED, which came out in December. It's a fantasy about Zara who moves to Maine and is being stalked by someone very scary and very supernatural and very much not a vampire. It has a lot of romance in it. I have to do that to make up for the Woody slam, you know.

My second most recent book is GIRL, HERO, which came out in August. It's a novel about this girl, Liliana Faltin, who is trying to navigate freshman year when all this crud is going down with her mom and her dad. They're divorced. Her mom has a new guy who drinks too much. Her dad's started cross dressing. Enough said.

Right now I'm working on the sequel to NEED. YAY!

What did I say? SHE IS THE VERIEST! You should all read NEED now.
That will be all.

Besos,

Micol

Awesome Authors: Niki Burnham

Niki Burnham certainly is an Awesome Author. She is the RITA-Award winning author of twelve books, including Sticky Fingers, Goddess Games, and the Royally Jacked series. She is also a frequent blogger. You can read excerpts of her books, visit her bulletin board, and check out her blog at www.nikiburnham.com.

Blogs are a central part of the Bradford Novels universe. If you have a blog, why did you start blogging, and how did you come up with the name for your blog? I blog in two different places. Once a month, I post to the Simon Pulse Romantic Comedies blog. There, I mostly write about the process of writing (or, last month, about the tech guy at Apple who casually informed me that my hard drive was fried. Ouch!)
Then, I post roughly weekly to my own blog, The Go-Ahead, which is on my website and copied to MySpace and LiveJournal. The Go-Ahead is more for fun. I blog about television, Academy Awards fashion, writing, and a myriad of other topics, including baseball. (Picture me in a crowded room: "My name is Niki, and I am addicted to baseball. I understand that it's a sickness. . . . ")
I chose the title of the blog, The Go-Ahead, because I like the positive, optimistic connotations of the phrase. In baseball, a go-ahead run is one that—if the game is tied or your team is losing—puts your team in the lead. In writing, getting a "go-ahead" from your editor means that the publishing house loves the story you've submitted and wants to go to contract.

What's your favorite thing about blogging? It gives me a chance to have some back-and-forth with readers. I don't get a lot of comments on my blog, but I get a TON of e-mail about it from teens. It's usually along the lines of, "I totally agree with you about Kylie Minogue's outfit! I didn't want to put the comment on the blog, though, because I also have a question about something in one of your books. . . ." So that's cool. (Particularly when they agree with me about Kylie's outfits.)

What's the difference between a blog and a diary? I think of a diary as more of a log . . . a notation of things that happened to you over the course of a day, and how you felt about them. It's something you write for yourself. A blog, on the other hand, is more conversational. You know someone's reading it!

Spencer Grace Kelly, the main character in GoldenGirl, is named after her distant relative, the Princess of Monaco. What’s your favorite Grace Kelly movie, and why? Do the newsreels of her wedding count? I loved how both she and Prince Rainier looked nervous and happy at the same time.
As to films, while I loved both Rear Window and To Catch A Thief, my fave would have to be Dial M for Murder. None of the characters were completely good or completely bad. I like that ambiguity.

GoldenGirl is full of scandals and exposed secrets. What was the biggest scandal at your high school? There really weren't any huge scandals. Or maybe I just didn't know about them!

Did your classmates discover any of your deep, dark secrets? This is one of the upsides of being an Army brat. The longest I attended any school was three years, and all my friends moved from place to place, too. So if anyone had deep, dark secrets, it was tough to discover them. There wasn't enough time!
Not that I had any deep, dark secrets, of course.

What are your most recent books? Goddess Games is currently out in paperback. It's the story of three very different girls who are forced to room together while working at a mountain resort over the summer. Of course, each of them harbors secrets (and they want to keep it that way!)

What new projects are you working on now? I have several projects in the works, but I'm one of those superstitious writers who doesn't want to talk about a project until it's in the can. Is that so wrong? (I know, I know. More secrets!)

Awesome Authors: Jenn Echols

I first "met" Jennifer Echols when she took it upon herself to organize an author blog for the Simon Pulse Romantic Comedies line, for which she and I had each written several titles. These days, much of our communication consists of her "gently nudging" me when it's my day to post on the blog, and me frantically scribbling some thoughts down, and apologizing to her profusely. Luckily, in addition to be MUCH more productive and well-organized than I, she is also kind and merciful. I'm so excited to have her here today!

Jenn's personal blog can be found at http://jenniferechols.livejournal.com

Blogs are a central part of the Bradford Novels universe. They are also, more and more, a central part of the YA-writing universe. When and why did you start blogging?
I started blogging in October 2005 because my agent made me! My time was already thinly spread across writing, work, and family, and I didn't think I had room for one more responsibility in my life. My agent told me I needed to blog for the sake of my career, and I gave in. You can see my first post ever here: http://jenniferechols.livejournal.com/322.html. Aw, my little baby post, before I was published! Was I ever that young?

I'm really glad now that my agent put her foot down. I think blogging is the best thing I've done to connect me with my readers and with other authors. But do NOT ask me to join Twitter.

But how else will you keep up with the Tweets from all of our Bradford girlies? Okay, okay...you're off the hook! So, what's your favorite thing about blogging?
When it goes well, writing a blog entry is like writing a pop culture essay or a newspaper column, something I have done in the past and dearly loved. Some authors come up with a great entry like this every day and I am amazed, but I can only do it once every few weeks. I do not have enough brain capacity to write novels and daily blog entries too. If you ever see me post longish blog entries for several days in a row, you will know I am not working on a novel, and my writing has to go somewhere.

I can relate. I'm no good at daily blogging when I'm under deadline—Bradford Blog Bash notwithstanding, of course. Okay, then—as someone who coordinates between a variety of different blogs, how do you stay organized?
I am the founder and web mistress for the Simon Pulse Romantic Comedies Blog at http://pulserocom.com and the MTV Books Blog at http://mtvbooks.blogspot.com. The Simon Pulse blog was very difficult to push through because the editors there had all kinds of legal concerns. I was just discussing this with my new editor over the weekend, and we agreed that today I would have no trouble starting such a thing, because blogging has become so much more commonplace in only a few years.

Now that both blogs are up and running, they're really not very time-consuming. I have a calendar that tells me when I should prompt writers to post (everybody has a target day), and I get an e-mail message when someone has posted a comment that I need to approve. The author bloggers are fantastic, so both blogs pretty much run themselves.

I will take that as a personal compliment! :) What are the pros and cons of running a group blog, as opposed to blogging strictly on a personal site?
On a group blog, obviously you and your books aren't getting as much attention as you would on your own blog. But the group blog theoretically draws a larger audience, and readers may discover your books because they were interested in someone else's.

Very true. I'm personally always interested, also, in how different bloggers group together to create joint sites, such as The Longstockings, or YA Fresh. What do you think the difference is between a blog and a diary? How confessional do you like a blog to get? What sort of blog posts most appeal to you? What are some of your favorite blogs (book or otherwise) out there right now?
Some blogs are essentially diaries, and I don't enjoy those. I love blogs where I can learn something or LMAO.

Hopefully the Bradford Novels blog has given you at least a few giggles. But it's not all fun and games! GoldenGirl is full of scandals and exposed secrets. What was the biggest scandal at your high school? Did your classmates discover any of your deep, dark secrets?
We actually had quite a few teacher/student romances! But secrets—no. It was a Southern town of 15,000 people. There were no secrets.

I keep hearing about these teacher/student romances. If this was going on in my high school, I was outside of the rumor mill, for sure. So tell me, what’s the worst thing you ever did to a friend? Are you still friends with her or him?
I went out with my friend's ex-boyfriend. I actually thought she would be okay with it, but she was NOT. She is still one of my best friends, though.

How very Bradford-esque!

And now for the promote-y part: Of course, we want to know about your books. What are your most recent books? What new projects are you working on now?
Going Too Far will be published by MTV Books on March 17. It's about a seventeen-year-old who avoids prosecution for a high school stunt by spending spring break on night patrol with the 19-year-old rookie cop who arrested her. I just finished revising The Ex Games, my new Simon Pulse Romantic Comedy set in the world of snowboarding, which will come out in October. And now I'm finishing a book I started during NaNoWriMo that I absolutely LOVE. There's no better feeling than loving the book you're working on!

Lucky for us—'cause we love READING your stuff! Thanks for stopping by our party, Jenn!

Awesome Authors: Jessica Verday

Jessica Verday wrote the first draft of The Hollow by hand, using thirteen spiral-bound notebooks and fifteen black pens. She is currently handwriting the second novel and highly contemplating whether or not she should add in a Zombie unicorn. Visit her at www.JessicaVerday.com.

Blogs are a central part of the Bradford Novels universe. If you have a blog, why did you start blogging, and how did you come up with the name for your blog?
After I signed on with an agent, I knew I should probably start blogging to get a feel for it and to get my name out there! The name of my blog (Jibberings) was just a completely random word that came to me in the shower one day. (That's usually where my best ideas come from)

What's your favorite thing about blogging? Reading other people's blogs.

What's the difference between a blog and a diary?
When I'm composing a blog, I think of several things:
1) That I'm not putting too much personal identifying information out there,
2) That what I'm saying will benefit someone, somewhere (even if it is just a silly post - laughing is good too!), and
3) That what I'm saying won't offend anyone.
When I'm writing in a diary, the only one who will read it is me, so I don't have to worry about my words as much. I think that keeping a blog can help us become better people since we are forced to recognize that our words have power. (Cyber-bullying? Not cool.)

Spencer Grace Kelly, the main character in GoldenGirl, is named after her distant relative, the Princess of Monaco. What's your favorite Grace Kelly movie, and why?
Believe it or not, I've never seen a Grace Kelly movie. Which one do you suggest?

GoldenGirl is full of scandals and exposed secrets. What was the biggest scandal at your high school? Did your classmates discover any of your deep, dark secrets? I went to a strict private school, so probably the biggest scandal would be each year when the inevitable teen pregnancy would happen. As for my deep, dark secrets? They are all still safe. ;)

What's the worst thing you ever did to a friend? Are you still friends with her or him?
I don't really have anything specific that I did, but I was forced to "stop" being friends with someone. Looking back now, I wish I would have been able to find a way to talk to that friend and explain why that happened. Luckily, I've been able to reconnect with them recently via MySpace and Facebook and I'm looking forward to getting the chance to grow our friendship again.

What are your most recent books? What new projects are you working on now?
My debut novel, The Hollow, will be published October 6, 2009. It's the first in a trilogy, and I am working on the second book right now.

Awesome Authors: Nick Eliopulos

Nick Eliopulos lives in Brooklyn and works as a children's book editor in Manhattan. He blogs, though not as often as he should, at interrobanger.blogspot.com.

Blogs are a central part of the Bradford Novels universe. If you have a blog, why did you start blogging, and how did you come up with the name for your blog?
I meant for my blog to accomplish two things. One was to help me practice my craft. (I love making comics, so my blog is in comic format.) The other was to keep up with friends—especially friends left behind in Florida, who might want to know details of my life that I don't get around to reporting in e-mails. That other people have found it and enjoyed it is an unexpected pleasure; it also forced me to reconsider posting some of the more risque details of my life. THOSE I can save for e-mails.
As for the name—my roommate took a typesetting class and came home one day having learned a new word: interrobang. It's a combination of a question mark and an exclamation point. Something about that felt very comic-book-y to me, very much a confluence of visual and verbal language. But "interrobang" was taken and "interrobanger" adds a sense of activeness, of agency (and, maybe, of super-heroics?). So I went for interrobanger.blogspot.com.

What's your favorite thing about blogging?
I love getting comments. It's validation, reminding me that I'm not just gazing into the abyss; I'm connecting with people. And if those comments are from random strangers, all the better!

What's the difference between a blog and a diary?
I think it's impossible to blog without understanding that others will see it. You might make every conscious effort not to censor yourself, but in my experience that awareness can't help but affect how you portray events—and especially how you portray yourself. Sometimes I've made blog entries specifically to communicate to someone in my life. Sometimes I've told myself an entry is done in spite of the fact that a particular person might see it. And the sorts of anecdotes I've chosen to focus on have definitely changed as my readership has grown.

Spencer Grace Kelly, the main character in GoldenGirl, is named after her distant relative, the Princess of Monaco. What's your favorite Grace Kelly movie, and why? Rear Window. It's actually the only Grace Kelly movie that I've seen, but I love it. And she's fantastic in it.

GoldenGirl is full of scandals and exposed secrets. What was the biggest scandal at your high school? Did your classmates discover any of your deep, dark secrets? Ha ha. Well, my best friend and I were secretly dating our entire senior year. I was more or less openly gay. But he didn't identify as gay, so he didn't want anyone to find out. Some friends claimed in hindsight to have known, or at least suspected. But those we told right before graduation were shocked and, in fact, seemed to think it was an elaborate prank. That was an exhausting process, so I only told a few friends and let the news spread on its own. And it certainly spread.

What's the worst thing you ever did to a friend? Are you still friends with her or him?
Given that most of my friends are exes, there's a lot of water under various bridges. I can't say that a "worst thing" stands out—there's always drama, and I always try to make it work. But I did lose a friend a couple years back because I was unreliable—constantly late, that sort of thing. He couldn't deal with it. So while I wasn't doing anything malicious, I did mess up.

What are your most recent books? What new projects are you working on now?
I've had short comics published in the anthologies Stuck in the Middle and, drawing David Levithan's script, in First Kiss (Then Tell). I have another short piece in an upcoming, as-yet-untitled anthology—that's due in Spring 2010. And I have a full-length comic project in the works, but it's too early to talk about it!