when i first got the idea for the book, i wanted it to
be a heroine's journey. i wanted to bring in chinese folklore
and myth, but also infuse the story with fantastic elements
from my own imagination. i'll share the blurb from the greenwillow
summer catalog, because i can't do it better than they do it. =)

on the day of her first betrothal ( Read more... )

Thanks for being with us, Fran! Tell us about your new MG novel, When the Whistle Blows.

It's about a boy who loves steam engines and who can't quite figure out his crotchety father, who is the foreman of the B&O railroad in his hometown.  At its heart, it is a coming of age story that is also a mystery-adventure, complete with a late night ( Read more... )

Thanks for being here, Melissa!
You can check out Melissa's newest novel, FRAGILE ETERNITY in your local bookstore.

THE SEASON is the story of seventeen-year-old Lady Alexandra Worthington, who is sharp tongued and strong willed and positively loathes dress fittings-exactly the opposite of what a lady should be in Regency London.

Alex, along with her BFFs, Vivi & Ella, can't seem to sit idly by drinking tea and embroidering.  Instead, the girls get themselves ( Read more... )

Thanks for being here with us, Erin!
Tell us about your newest novel,  Models Don't Eat Chocolate Cookies.

MODELS is about an overweight eighth grade girl named Celeste, whose aunt enters her into the Miss HuskyPeach pageant. Deciding that the humiliation of being a "chubby teen queen" is too much to bear, Celeste decides to try and lose weight-- ( Read more... )

Hey, Carrie! Thanks for joining us.
Tell us about your newest YA novel, The Forest of Hands and Teeth.

The Forest of Hands and Teeth is about a young girl growing up in an isolated village generations after the apocalypse.  The village is surrounded by a forest full of Unconsecrated (zombie-like creatures) and is run by a strict religious ( Read more... )

FADE steps things up a bit for Janie and Cabe. And since I'm freakishly afraid of giving out spoilers, I'm just going to paste the front flap copy here and leave it at that:

"For Janie and Cabel, real life is getting tougher than the dreams. They're just trying to carve out a little (secret) time together, but no such luck. Disturbing things are ( Read more... )

Is there anything you can tell us about your next book? My next book, The Multiplying Menace is the first in a middle grade series called The Magic Repair Shop Chronicles. Here’s a bit of a blurb:

For twelve-year-old Maggie, hiding her magic is a lonely job. When she’s forced to spend the year with her emotionally detached grandmother in ( Read more... )

 

WINGS is about a fifteen-year-old girl names Laurel Sewell who discovers that she is a faerie, and it's nothing like the storybooks say. She gets caught up in a centuries-old battle between the trolls and the faeries for the faerie realm and becomes torn between David, a human, and Tamani, a faerie.

What is your main character's theme song?

Wow ( Read more... )