Party Favors!!!

The Bradford Blog Bash is winding down, but this week is packed with soooo much Bradfordly goodness...I just can't contain my excitement. Here are some of the highlights:

• NOW YOU SEE HER. Our fav author, Micol, has created a special vid that explains that interactive collection of web stuffs we like to call the Bradverse. She's super cute in it—especially right after the first cutaway—AND she manages to do a great job of explaining just what all this crazy internet stuff is all about. Let us know what you think, and spread it around! (It's also available on the FlirtyGirlBooks YouTube channel, if you have trouble embedding it from Vimeo.)
  

• ASK AND YE SHALL RECEIVE. Thanks to suggestions from Alea, Noah, and others, we've launched an official BradfordWiki!!! This is a special collection of articles about the series that's meant to be written for the fans, BY the fans. We've created a few article stubs just to get you started, but this is a place for YOU to share your Bradford knowledge with other readers! (In particular, I think Alea is interested in someone deciphering some of that unique Bradford slang...anyone out there willing to help her out?)

• PARTY FAVORS. We've just added some fun new GoldenGirl-themed avatars/chat icons and wallpapers to the Bradford Novels downloads page. Deck out your desktop like a Fashionista, or satisfy your inner Paige (or Mads, or Spence, or Regan) by switching your chat icon.
  

• THE GRAND FINALE. I know it's been a long and crowded party (thanks, authors, bloggers, and photo shoot cast & crew for giving us so many posts!) but you need to keep up your energy for a few more days! Not only do we have some really exciting posts this week, but we're planning two grand prize-ish giveaways (okay, so they're not a trip to Tahiti, but they're more than just a book). One's for a random commenter to any post from this week—multiple comments = multiple entries, natch—AND the other's for a random commenter to ANY POST FROM THE ENTIRE BLOG BASH (same rules apply). So, you're probably already entered to win one of the grand prizes!! How great is that? Now, let's get to work increasing your chances of winning by sharing your thoughts with us!
  

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

Mondays with Micol: Double Feature

To celebrate the beginning of the last week of the Bradford Blog Bash, we decided to do a double feature for Mondays with Micol. So read both Q&A's and then comment on one or both to be entered in this week's giveaway.

Would you want to attend Bradford Prep?
I actually attended a private day school that was similar to Bradford in that academics were strongly emphasized and there was a LOT of pressure on students to perform. And I was always a bit of an overachiever: student council, newspaper, yearbook, lit mag, in addition to honors classes and AP track and that sort of stuff.
(Gawd, I'm making myself sound like a HUGE nerd. But there you have it. Would it help if I told you I was also a cheerleader for a brief stint? 'Cause I was.).
So I think intellectually, I would have been prepared for a place as rigorous as Bradford. Still, though, my school was very small, so as much as we had our cliques, the social life wasn't quite as cutthroat as it is at Bradford. The mean girl culture might be hard to adjust to.
All that being said—who wouldn't want to go to Bradford? The glamour! The drama! The outfits!

Which Bradford character did you think you'd hate, but end up bonding with?
I have a soft spot in my heart for poor Kaylen, who is so cripplingly insecure and transparent. I thought I would find her annoying and needy, but actually, she's lots of fun to write, and she brings out my sympathy and pity. I hope she has a chance to come into her own later on as the series evolves.

So, two questions for you, friendlies:
1. Would you want to attend Bradford Prep & why/why not?
2. Of all the scandal-mongers, frenemies, and bizznatches out there in the Brad-verse, which one do you LOVE to hate?

Tell us what you think by this Thursday at midnight EST, and you'll be entered in this week's giveaway. Since there are two Mondays with Micol questions this week, you'll get an entry for each question you comment about—that's two chances to win, just for letting us know what you think! We'll use a random number generator to select a winner, and will announce the lucky recipient in Friday's post. Good luck!

Review Roundup

Thanks to all the teen-book bloggers who've said such nice things about GoldenGirl. Finding out that people are enjoying the first book and are already looking forward to Madison's story really makes us happy. Seriously. Squeee!

Okay, perhaps that was a bit overenthusiastic, but take a look at these reviews, and you'll see why we're so giddy.

Frenetic Reader rated the first Bradford novel 8/10, saying "GoldenGirl comes highly recommended, especially if you want a light read."

Shalonda says "The Bradford Novels are sure to be instant hits! GoldenGirl, the first in the series, is full of humor, fashion, and jaw-dropping drama!" (She also says this blog is "so very." Awwwww, you're the one who's so very, Shalonda!)

Alea at Pop Culture Junkie says GoldenGirl is "a gossipy, scandalous, fashionably good time!" (And I love her idea of putting together a glossary of the girls' slang. Maybe we'll do something like that on the website.)

THANK YOU. And keep checking out the online content, especially the blogs and tweets, for new posts. It's a great way to get to know the other characters better between now and the next book.