Introducing...Lauren Mechling and Laura Moser's New Web Series: MY DARKLYNG!

So I'm a really big fan of Lauren Mechling's Dream Girl and Dream Life: they are just such smart, well-written, and funny teen chick lit of sorts with a dash of the magical/paranormal. So when Lauren let me know that she has another project coming out, I was super excited about it! What's cool and different about it is that it's being serialized on the web! Check out what Lauren has to say about MY DARKLYNG (plus find out the fun premise behind the story), and then read an exclusive interview with one of the real teens who plays one of the characters!

-

Laura Moser (my hilarious 10th Grade Social Climber co-author) and I are co-writing a teen thriller that will be running in serialized form all summer long on the web site Slate. It is called MY DARKLYNG and it will publish on Fridays, starting today, June 4.

My Darklyng is a creepy thriller about a normal 16-year old-girl named Natalie who, as embarrassing as it may be, obsessed with the "Dark Shadows" vampire series. She ends up becoming friends with the gorgeous cover model on every "Dark Shadows" book and gets sucked into the Dark Shadows world. It's a dream come true--until her life starts to get really scary and crumble apart.

It's unlike anything I've ever written before--and not just because it isn't a comedy. We wanted to give the story an element of texture that's impossible to do when you're working on a regular printed book. So we have real teenagers "playing" the characters--they are making videos, photographs and keeping Twitter and Facebook pages. Follow the characters so you can follow the ups and downs of Natalie's life in between publication days. Here are the Twitter pages--they're really fun so far.

@eternalnat (main character Natalie Pollock)
@mydarklyng (the demented and brilliant vampire author Fiona St. Claire)
@tillax (Fiona's sweet supportive sister Tilly)
@thejameskay (the vampire cover model James Kay).

The big multiplatform YA thriller MY DARKLYNG launches today on Slate, You can read chapters here--and new chapters will be posted every Friday. So definitely bookmark the page!

Being a multimedia bonanza, the project also has Twitter feeds, videos, photographs, Wikipedia pages, and more. There are also real live teenage girls playing the main characters. I am presenting you an exclusive interview with Hannah, who plays the main character Natalie and is also serving as our art director. She's been taking buckets of photographs to go along with the story. (You can watch them--along with some truly scary pix--upload on her Facebook page here.)

Without further ado. . .

What's your name? Hannah Grosman [girl on the right in the picture]


How old are you? 16

How did you meet Lauren? I actually met her through my school. She graduated from the school that I go to and wanted someone from here to help.

What's your take on this weird multimedia project? Do you think kids will be into it? I think it's AWESOME! The multimedia side of the project is so different than anything else that I've ever seen, and it will definitely attract a lot of readers.

Whats your favorite cheesy YA book? I'd definitely have to say that my favorite YA novels are the Twilight series. Who doesn't love vampires?!

What kinds of pictures have you been taking? I've been taking the type of pictures that my friends and I would take for our own Facebook pages. They are quirky and cute shots that show Natalie and her friends joking around and being teenagers!

Whats the biggest similarity between you and Natalie? It's actually quite scary how similar Natalie and I are... we both have secret obsession with nerdy books, we both run track, the similarities are endless!

Biggest difference? Natalie is way cooler than I am! I absolutely adore her character.

[For the record Hannah is totally lying. She's The Coolest.]

-

Thanks, Lauren and Hannah, for visiting my blog today! Be sure to keep your eyes open on the blogosphere for other guest posts regarding this series, and above all, check it out on Slate!

Review: Perchance to Dream by Lisa Mantchev

Theatre Illuminata, Act 2 (review of Book 1: Eyes Like Stars)

Tags: YA, fantasy, magic, love triangle, fathers

Summary

Beatrice Shakespeare Smith never thought she’d leave the theatre, but here she is, on the road to save Nate, her pirate sweetheart, from the hands of the nefarious Sedna the Sea Witch, accompanied by her four fairy friends and the seductive air spirit Ariel. Armed with the magical powers of the Mistress of Revels, Bertie is able to write herself in and out of situations. But not even her power with words can prepare her for revelations about her parents’ past, a battle over her heart, and the ultimate encounter with Sedna.

Review

Lisa Mantchev outdoes herself in this lush and exotic sequel to EYES LIKE STARS. In many ways it is quite different from the first book, but stunningly so, and I think will make readers gain a whole new level of appreciation for Lisa’s writing.

If I could eat just one book, I think this would have to be it. In Lisa Mantchev’s hands, words aren’t merely lines and swirls of black on white: they come alive, playing with one another, dancing like fairies themselves. The book is chock-full of wordplay and descriptions so rich you just want to roll them around and around on your tongue. Lisa’s writing really sets the tone and setting of PERCHANCE TO DREAM into a world that seems to always be dissolving and changing at the corners of our eyes.

All the characters you loved from EYES LIKE STARS come back in full force in this stunning sequel. Bertie may be the tip of the love triangle, but she’s far from your typical YA heroine: she is spunky and independent, and would never consider giving herself up for love. We get to see a lot more of Ariel than Nate in this Theatre Illuminata installment, which is deliciously swoon-worthy in a sensual and dangerous way. And Bertie’s encounters with new characters—Sedna, the Scrimshander, various vagabonds she meets along her journey (including the traveling circus)—are excellent additions to the series, each one an almost surreal section.

For those who enjoy incredibly beautiful writing and a unique cast of varied characters, Lisa Mantchev’s books are not to be missed. Lovers of EYES LIKE STARS may be slightly jarred by the lack of backstory and the completely different change of pace and setting, but you just might also be fall under Lisa’s writing spell, as I irrevocably am.

Similar Authors
Francesca Lia Block

Writing: 5/5
Characters: 5/5
Plot: 4/5

Overall Rating: 4.5 out of 5


Cover discussion: 5 out of 5 - I think Jason Chan should draw more book covers. That's all.

Feiwel & Friends / May 25, 2010 / Hardcover / 352pp. / $16.99

ARC sent by publisher. Thanks, Lisa!

Waiting on Wednesday (67)

Spiritwalker, Book 1: Cold Magic by Kate Elliott

'I was not a bard or a djeli or an historian or a scribe and I was certainly not a sage, but that didn't mean I wasn't curious ...'

As they approach adulthood, Cat Barahal and her cousin Bee think they understand the society they live in and their place within it. At a select academy they study new airship technologies and the dawning Industrial Revolution, but magical forces still rule. Drawn into a labyrinth of politics involving blood and old feuds, Cat is betrayed by her family and forced to marry a powerful Cold Mage. As she is carried away to live a new life, drawn into a labyrinth of politics involving blood, betrayal and old feuds, she will be forced to make an unexpected and perilous journey in order to discover the truth, not just about her own family but about an ancient secret lying at the heart of her world. [summary from Goodreads and PaperbackSwap]

Can I first say that if Orbit continues to come out with ever stunning covers, my wallet will NOT be happy with me? Anyway, this one sounds epic and potentially very enthralling. Magic, arranged marriages, betrayals, political conspiracy... maybe even a little steampunk? Sounds like it can be fantastic!

Cold Magic will be published in paperback by Orbit on September 9, 2010.


What are YOU waiting for this Wednesday?

Author Interview with Wendelin van Draanen!

You may know her from her fantastic YA novel Flipped. But today, author Wendelin van Draanen is stopping on my blog for a blog tour to promote the next book in her middle-grade Sammy Keyes mystery series. Welcome, Wendelin, to Steph Su Reads!

1. Hello Wendelin! Could you tell us something funny/unusual/quirky about yourself that few people know?

Hi, Steph! Thanks so much for asking me to stop by. This blog-tour idea is pretty cool, and it’s nice of you to invite me in.

Now, about my quirks. Boy, you’re starting off tough! I mean, maybe people don’t know about them because I want to keep them secret? Okay, okay I agreed to do this, so here we go—some quirks:

1. I can’t let a jigsaw puzzle go unfinished. My kids find great joy in this because they get away with all sorts of stuff when a puzzle’s open. It’s terrible.
2. I’m obsessed with the moon. A moonrise is mesmerizing. Don’t even try to talk to me when I’m watching the moon.
3. I like to ride shopping carts through parking lots. You know, run, hop on, ride? There is something truly joyful about riding a shopping cart. People think I’m crazy about this now? Just wait ‘til I’m 90. “Outta my way sonny! I’m comin’ through!”

2. You've been writing about Sammy Keyes for over 10 years now. What are some things about her or the series that have changed since you started?

She is growing up a month at a time from book to book, so she’s trying to learn from her mistakes and apply those lessons to new situations. It’s tough to pull the punch when you’re dealing with Heather Acosta, but she’s learning to take her down in other ways.

What’s been a challenge for me over the course of the series is keeping the stories up-to-date regarding kids’ use of technology. When I started the series, kids didn’t have iPods or cell phones. Fortunately, Sammy can’t afford those things to begin with, but they need to exist on the periphery, and slipping in these changes needs to feel natural to the reader. Plea to techno companies: Stop inventing new stuff!

3. I just wanted to say that I've reread Flipped dozens of times and it's still one of my all-time favorites. So thank you! What inspired you to write Juli and Bryce's story?

Flipped is the book I wish I’d had when I was growing up. I think it would have helped so much in my view, not only of my crushes, but of my friends. It took me forever to learn to see “past the surface,” and Flipped is my way of presenting the importance of that concept without preaching it. All the “telling” in the world is not going to dissuade a teen from their crush…but somehow Flipped manages to break through.

4. If you could bring one of your characters to life, who would it be?

Sammy. And I would be willing to relive the dark days of junior high just so I could hang out with her. And man, that’s saying something.

5. It certainly is! So you run a literacy/fitness campaign called "Exercise the Right to Read." Can you tell us a little about that, and one memorable experience from the program?

The Exercise the Right to Read program is my effort to help schools raise funds while instilling good fitness and literacy habits in students, and also serving the community. Everything’s free and downloadable at www.exercisetherighttoread.org.  Schools that have participated have had really good success. I just returned from visiting Central Middle School in Edmond, Oklahoma—this year’s ETRTR challenge winner. Part of my visit involved walking the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon 5-K with students, parents, and staff. I got on a school bus with a bunch of them at five in the morning and it was such an uplifting, moving experience for me to see how much participating in this program had impacted them.

6. You've written a variety of books in many different genres. Are there any other types of books that you'd like to write in the future?

The unexpected seems to happen to me in writing. I’ll get a little seed of an idea, tell myself, No way—you don’t have time for that! But that little seed takes root and before you know it I’m watering the darn thing, thinking about it all the time. At that point, it’s too late to turn back. Last year was the first year in ten years that there was no Sammy Keyes book published. And that was because this little idea I had consumed me. There was a tremendous amount of research involved in developing the idea but I was obsessed with the story and everything else got put on hold. The book is titled The Running Dream and will be out in January 2011, but because of it there was a delay in writing Sammy Keyes and the Wedding Crasher (which, ironically, comes out before The Running Dream, in October 2010). I started getting people writing me asking, Are you writing any more Sammys? Please, please, please? And then there were the ones who wondered if I was dead. Can’t have that! So no matter what little idea floats into my head, I am now focusing on Sammy. From here to the end of the series, it’s Sammy Keyes all the way. After that? We’ll see what takes root.

7. Outside of writing, what are some of your favorite things to do?

I love playing chess with my sons. We have a Burger King crown that we’ve turned into the Chess Champion crown, and it rotates among the three of us. Who has the crown? I want to play! (My husband won’t play me, ‘cause he can’t beat me, but the boys are starting to do so routinely, which give me great pleasure.)

My favorite thing in the world is playing raucous rock ‘n’ roll guitar…something I do with my husband (who is an awesome drummer), and now also our sons who (incredibly enough) don’t think it’s awkward to play in a band with their parents.

8. And finally, can you give us a small hint as to what will appear in the upcoming Sammy Keyes book?

Sammy Keyes books are never easy to sum up, and Sammy Keyes and the Wedding Crasher is no exception. This is the first Sammy where the mystery occurs at school. Someone’s threatening Mr. Vince, and because of his sour attitude toward his students, the field of suspects is wide open. Also, Sammy’s ditzy mother is back in town causing trouble, Officer Borsch is getting married (or at least trying—after all, Sammy’s in the wedding party, so you know things are not going to go smoothly), and Heather’s up to evil. And then there’s Casey. Poor Sammy and Casey. Sigh.

So that’s it? Okay! Well, thanks again for inviting me to stop by. I hope your readers will follow me to my next tour stop which will be at Through a Glass, Darkly (www.throughaglass.net) tomorrow. I understand a middle schooler who is a big Sammy Keyes fan will be in charge of questions. Should be interesting!

-

Thank you so much for stopping by, Wendelin! Be sure to visit the other stops on Wendelin's tour if you're interested, in order to learn more about her, Sammy Keyes, and her other books!


May 31^st: Where the Books Are – http://wherethebestbooksare.blogspot.com
June 1^st:  Steph Su Reads - http://stephsureads.blogspot.com
June 2^nd: Through A Glass, Darkly – www.throughaglass.net
June 3^rd: Mrs. Magoo Reads – www.mrsmagooreads.com
June 4^th: The Children’s Book Review – www.thechildrensbookreview.com
June 5^th:  Write for a Reader – www.writeforareader.blogspot.com
June 6^th: Mundie Moms - http://mundiemoms.blogspot.com/
June 7^th: Library Lounge Lizard - http://www.libraryloungelizard.com/
June 8^th: Wendelin’s Jog Blog - http://etrtr.blogspot.com/