The Luckiest Girl Alive

Before I get to the blog, I want to say welcome to the world Brixton Marcel Jirkovsky-Gual! I can't wait to meet you and congrats to your mom and dad, Polly and Chris, and your big sis, Unity! Yay for friends with beautiful babies I can play with.

So tomorrow is my wedding day and I just wanted to post quick and say I'm the luckiest girl alive. I've had to kiss a lot of frogs. I've put up with a lot of bullshit: alcoholics, junkies, two-timers, abusive a-holes, but now I have my prince. Seriously as I was sitting on the floor assembling wedding favors in the middle of the night on Tuesday, listening to the mix CD we made for our wedding, I realized that I never truly knew what love was before I met Scott. Love is someone who completes you, who balances you, who knows how to give and take. Someone who is supportive and believes in your dreams more than you do sometimes. Someone who makes you completely comfortable and makes you laugh harder than you've ever laughed. Someone who is both lover and best friend. And Scott is all of those things. He is my perfect match.

No matter what happens, if my writing career tanks or doesn't become what I want it to be, I will always have my heart and that is the most important thing.

I love you, Scott. Thanks for all you've given me so far and I look forward to the rest of my life with you.

Women Who Rock Wednesday: Sara Zarr

I hope everyone enjoyed my first group WWRW interview with Kay Cassidy, Tera Lynn Childs, Becca Fitzpatrick and Alyson Noel about their fabulous website Living Your Five. The lucky winner of swag from all five of us is.... CassandraBelikov440 from Blogger! I will email you shortly for your address!

Today I'm honored to have author Sara Zarr. Seriously Sara Zarr is like hero/idol to me. I can't tell you how much I adore her book STORY OF A GIRL. It's one of those books that just makes me work harder to be a better writer so that hopefully I can tell a tale so masterfully. I'm sure I'll feel the same way about her new one, ONCE WAS LOST which comes out tomorrow!

So here's Sara to tell us all about herself and ONCE WAS LOST!

Q: Tell us all about ONCE WAS LOST. What's it about? And how did you come up with the story?

Sara: It's about fourteen days in the life of a pastor's daughter, Samara, who's in the midst of something of a personal tragedy (her mother is in rehab, her father is clueless) when a local tragedy happens: a young girl from her father's congregation is kidnapped. We see that through the eyes of someone who would like to have some hope, but the things she's grown up holding onto don't seem to be coming through for her.

The idea was one of those that was a long time in forming. When a teen girl in my city (Salt Lake) was kidnapped in summer of 2002, I started putting it together. At first it was kind of an ensemble piece with multiple POVs, including those of adults, with every character peripherally connected to the missing girl. It was all very epic. In late 2007 I took control of it and began shaping it into a YA novel.

Q: What are five songs that would be on the soundtrack to ONCE WAS LOST and how do they relate to the book?

Sara:Oh God, Where Are You Now? by Sufjan Stephens - Basically, that is the question Sam asks throughout the book.

I Know There's a Word for This by Aimee Mann - A great anthem of malaise, if that's not a contradiction in terms, and Sam (and her mother) are depressed.

Idea #21 (Not Too Late) by Over the Rhine - This is the theme song of the book, for me.

The Killer Inside by Better Than Ezra - A number of people in the book may or may not be suspects in the kidnapping. It's good to have a creepy song like this (and also BTE's Porcelain) playing in the back of your mind as you read the last third.

Ballad of Humandkindness by The Dears - I always have a line of this song in my head, "And I turn on the news / and there's always some dude / who's relentlessly bringing me down." It's just a great song for anyone who is pissed off at the state of the world, and the state of themselves.

Q: ONCE WAS LOST is about a crisis of faith, something I believe we all go through as teenagers, not necessarily about religion but about who we are and how we fit with our friends and families. Can you talk about a time you had a crisis of faith, maybe as a teen, maybe as a writer, and how you got through it?

Sara:I'd never thought of this before now - I was going through my crisis of faith in myself, God, and my future as a writer exactly when Elizabeth Smart was kidnapped. That summer, so much was wrong with the world. I mean, I guess there always is, but I was really feeling it. 9/11 was still in recent memory, the economy was in the toilet, I'd just been laid off and had also parted ways with my first agent with three unsold books. I was relatively new to Utah and still feeling homesick for CA. When Elizabeth was kidnapped, it was the kind of thing that felt like the proverbial straw breaking the camel's back. My basic attitude toward life was, "What the HELL?" Who is in charge? Why is everything falling apart?

How did I get through it? I don't know. I started therapy. I went to my first writing workshop and felt like I was doing the right thing with my life. I prayed a lot. Mostly, I waited. Eventually (like a year later), there was this moment when I sort of felt a voice inside me saying it was going to be okay. And it was.

Q: When did you decide you wanted to become a writer? Was it when you were a kid or later in life? Who were some of the people that inspired you to become a writer? (authors, people in your life, fictional characters, whoever. Since it is Women Who Rock Wednesday, we love to hear about other inspiring women, but we're happy to hear about influential men, too.)

Sara:I always wrote, but didn't think of it as a potential career until I was 25 and done with college. The people who inspired me were the people who were like me---writing and hoping one day to be published. I don't even know where most of them are now, but, hello if you're out there, and thank you! The very first writer I ever wrote a letter to was Marilyn Sachs. I'd adored her book as a young reader, and when I started writing seriously I felt like reaching out to everyone whose books I'd ever loved. Any writer of YA or MG who hasn't read Sachs, especially THE TRUTH ABOUT MARYROSE, needs to! She wrote back---a lovely handwritten card.

Q: I know ONCE WAS LOST hasn't even come out yet, but once we all devour it, we'll be wanting more, so what's next for you?

Sara:Oooh, well, all I can really say is I'm hard at work on my fourth novel for Little, Brown. My editor hasn't even seen it yet so I have to be vague.

Q: I have two questions that I always ask my Women Who Rock, the first is a two-parter. What was the first album you bought and the first concert you attended? Be honest, we don't judge, we like to see the roots of our women who rock!

Sara:First album I bought on my own, with my own money: Abba's Greatest Hits, Volume II. On vinyl. First concert I attended that was not arranged by my mother: U2, in 1986, on their Joshua Tree tour, at the Cow Palace. Not a bad way to start.

Q: Tell us about your biggest rock star moment, perhaps it's a moment of real success in your career, a time when you met someone super cool and had that Wayne's World "I'm not worthy" moment, or just a time where you felt like you got the rock star treatment. I get a huge variety of answers for the questions, so it's pretty much whatever "rock star moment" means to you!

Sara:This past spring I was lucky enough to be part of the Rochester Teen Book Festival. Man, they know how to make a writer feel like a star! They literally roll out a red carpet. You travel in a stretch limo. When you step out of it, they have all the festival teen volunteers waiting so that as you walk the red carpet they are cheering and shouting out your name. If you're an author and you ever get invited to this event, SAY YES!

Thank you so much, Sara, for sharing the story behind ONCE WAS LOST and telling us so much about yourself :)

Today's Contest:

And a huge thanks to Sara for putting up a signed copy of STORY OF A GIRL as part of today's contest. It's one of my all time favorite books, so here is your chance to win it!

To enter just leave a comment about Sara's interview. You can also get extra entries:

+1 for tweeting/blogging about today's interview/contest

+1 for tweeting/blogging about Sara and her new book release ONCE WAS LOST

Note your extra entries in your comment along with an email address to contact you at. Then tune in two weeks from today because I'll announce the winner when I interview author Kathy Charles!

That's right you have two weeks to enter this contest because I'll be off honeymooning next week :) And don't forget to enter my Save Shrinking Violet contest too!

Save Shrinking Violet & Win Ballads of Suburbia

I was saddened to get an email from my fellow MTV Books author Danielle Joseph last week and find out that her amazing book, Shrinking Violet was about to go on backorder and the demand would have to increase for more copies to be printed. It's particularly upsetting because Shrinking Violet is *such* an amazing book and I think it's a very important one. If you know me at all, the books I like best are the ones that give voice to the types of people who are overlooked or don't have a voice. Shrinking Violet is actually about a shy girl finding her voice. I called it "a Cinderella story for anyone who felt shy or like they didn't fit in at high school." It's very important that more readers who need her be able to discover the incredible character of Tere.

Fortunately, Danielle is not taking this lying down. She is fighting for Tere and urging people to spread the word about Shrinking Violet, buy the book, etc. She even started a contest. I'm going to post the details below with Danielle's words about her book. But I'd also like to do a contest of my own.

I'm putting a signed copy of my own book, Ballads of Suburbia, up for grabs and this is how you get entries:

+1 for each tweet about the campaign to save Shrinking Violet. You can link to this blog or to Danielle's blog

+2 for posting about Danielle's contest on your blog's sidebar

+2 for posting about my contest on your blog's sidebar

+3 for writing a blog entry about the campaign to save Shrinking Violet

+10 for buying a copy of Shrinking Violet for yourself or someone else.

You can leave your list of entries in the comments of this blog, but proof of purchase (scanned/photographed receipt or forwarded online order confirmation) of Shrinking Violet should be sent to me at stephanie at stephaniekuehnert dot com.

My contest like Danielle's will end on October 15th.

Okay, now here is Danielle's contest and campaign for saving Shrinking Violet:

SAVE SHRINKING VIOLET!
Help Tere keep her voice!

Shrinking Violet is about an extremely shy high school senior trying to find her voice and reach her dream of becoming a DJ, despite the obstacles that stand in her way.

The book is about to go on back order and in order for more copies to be printed, more people have to place orders for the book.

Read more about Shrinking Violet:
High school senior Teresa Adams is so painfully shy that she dreads speaking to anyone in the hallways or getting called on in class. But in the privacy of her bedroom with her iPod in hand, she rocks out doing mock broadcasts for Miami's hottest FM radio station, which happens to be owned by her stepfather. When a slot opens up at The SLAM, Tere surprises herself by blossoming behind the mike into confident, sexy Sweet T to everyone's shock, she's a hit! Even Gavin, the only guy in school who she dares to talk to, raves about the mysterious DJ's awesome taste in music. But when The SLAM announces a songwriting contest, and a prom date with Sweet T is the grand prize, Sweet T's dream could turn into Tere's worst nightmare. . . .

Praise for Shrinking Violet:
"Bella, eat your heart out. Tere is the girl every young woman truly wants to be. . . . Brilliant work, Danielle Joseph." -Ellen Hopkins, New York Times bestselling author of Identical

"Danielle Joseph takes readers into the glamorous world of Top 40 radio, with a character who is both funny and relatable. Readers will cheer when Tere finds her voice!" -Alex Flinn, author of Breathing Underwater and A Kiss in Time

"A funny, romantic, and truly inspirational Cinderella tale for any teen who's ever been shy, loved music, or dreamed of going to the ball. Wait, that's pretty much everybody." -Gaby Triana, author of The Temptress Four


So here's how you can help:
Please tell anyone that you think might be interested to place an order now before it's too late. Guys, girls, grandmas. grandpas, you're never too old to read humorous teen fiction!

http://www.amazon. com/Shrinking- Violet-Danielle- Joseph/dp/ 1416596968/ ref=ed_oe_ p

http://www.indiebound.org/book/ 9781416596967

I'm also running a contest for those that want to have some fun! There will be four winners, each receiving a $25 gift certificate to iTunes or the bookstore of their choice.

So how can you win?
1. Post a review of Shrinking Violet on Amazon.com or B & N.com 2 points
2 Blog, Tweet or Facebook about the Save Shrinking Violet Campaign 1 point for each mention
3. Take a picture of yourself wearing a sweater and mimicking the book's cover (you must have the book in the photo too). 2 points

Contest begins at 11pm on Thursday, September 24, 2009 and ends at 11pm on Thurday, October 15, 2009.
After you enter, you can either email me at danielle at daniellejoseph dot com or leave me a comment on my blog at
http://daniellejoseph.livejournal. com/ under the entry, Save Shrinking Violet!

Video Interview and more fun stuff!

I just did a video interview as part of my favorite LA bookstore Book Soup's "What's Your Story?" Series where authors talk about a time a meaningful book just sort of fell into their lap. I really heart Book Soup and had a great time when I was there last year reading with Alexa Young. I couldn't afford to go out to LA to visit them this time around (I so wish I could!), so we did this long distance--it was taped by my fiance in our living room (with my kinda crappy camera hence I'm a little lispy-sounding). I'm really glad they offered me the opportunity to do this and I hope you enjoy it.

I also did a guest blog that is really important to me. There's a new blog site dealing with the topic of self injury called Razor Thoughts that I guess my "Ballad of A Scar" blog entry inspired. I'm really glad that me talking about my own struggle with self injury on my blog and writing a fictional portrayal of it in Ballads of Suburbia has led to more open discussion about. Anyway this is the guest blog I wrote, I hope you'll check it out.

And then there are three interviews that I had a lot of fun doing, so check those out as well if you can:

If you are a music lover, you'll want to check out my "Book Notes" on Largehearted Boy where I break down the songs that inspired me most while writing Ballads of Suburbia and why.

Here's one with Want My YA with some fun facts about me and also about my writing.

And here's one on Flip The Page that really asked some good questions about Ballads of Suburbia that got me thinking.

Lastly, thank you to everyone who weighed in on my Where Should I do Events question. I'm taking it all under consideration. Bay area/LA area people I will be back to California at some point no doubt. I've got lots of people I can stay with there. I think I need to give the East Coast some love next since most of the responses came from there, I just have to figure out it if I can do more than one city. But Madison, WI is definitely on the list too! Oh how I really really wish I could do a full tour and see all of you!

Of course my next readings are in the Chicago area. I really hope you can come to them. Turnouts have been so much smaller lately and it's a little sad :( Maybe you all are sick of me? Two books in two years was too fast? Okay enough of the guilt trip... But here's the info in case it worked :)

Tonight I am reading at 7:30 PM at the Tamale Hut Cafe at 8300 W Cermak in North Riverside. There's an open mic to follow, a great deal on great tamales, and it's BYOB.

Sunday at 2 pm, I'm reading at the Old School Records at 7446 Madison in Forest Park with Billy Lombardo and Don Evans as part of Arts Fest.

I'm really excited about Arts Fest in Forest Park this weekend. I really hope it doesn't get rained out, especially on Saturday because I want to take my friend's daughter. (She's like a niece to me, but we just started spending time together again after way too long.) What about you? Weekend plans?

Women Who Rock Wednesday: The Ladies of Living Your Five

This is a very special Women Who Rock Wednesday. It's my first ever group interview. I've actually got four women who rock here today and they have united in their awesomeness to create the website livingyourfive.com. What is Living Your Five? Well, you can find out at the website of course, which I hope you will do as soon as you are done reading these interviews, but for now, let's hear all about it from the women of Living Your Five.

The founder is Kay Cassidy, author of the forthcoming book, The Cinderella Society:

Q: Tell us about how you got the idea for Living Your Five?

Kay: In late 2008, I created the concept of Living Your Five as a way to help me focus my energy on the parts of my world that were most important to me. I was being pulled in a million different directions, as most of us are, and felt like the things that were most important to me (beyond family, friends and career) were always getting pushed to the wayside. So I sat down and chose my Five, the five areas in which I wanted to make a personal difference in the world.

It was such a profound change for me that, in early 2009, I wanted to create an online community where lots of people could create their own Five and cheer each other on to making a difference in their own pieces of the world too. I'm very lucky to have wonderful author friends who are very passionate about making a difference too. So I shared the Living Your Five concept with Tera Lynn Childs, Alyson Noel and Becca Fitzpatrick and invited them to join forces with me to launch a group Living Your Five web project. They all enthusiastically climbed aboard for the adventure, and the rest is history!

Q: I have two questions that I always ask my Women Who Rock, the first is a two-parter. What was the first album you bought and the first concert you attended? Be honest, we don't judge, we like to see the roots of our women who rock!

Kay: Oh gosh, that's a hard one. I don't know if I remember the very first album I bought, but one of my earliest record player memories (yep, giving away my age there) was of me playing the 45 of Diana Ross's Upside Down. That must have been... the early 80s? And the first concert I ever went to was ELO (Electric Light Orchestra) when I was six. I loved ELO. So, naturally, I fell asleep halfway through the concert. It was an indoor concert - how could anyone possibly sleep through it? No idea. You'd have to ask six year old me.

Q: Tell us about your biggest rock star moment, perhaps it's a moment of real success in your career, a time when you met someone super cool and had that Wayne's World "I'm not worthy" moment, or just a time where you felt like you got the rock star treatment. I get a huge variety of answers for the questions, so it's pretty much whatever "rock star moment" means to you!

Kay: Okay, keep in mind that my debut novel doesn't hit shelves until April 2010, so I'm still in that lull between first sale and first release. I was at the ALA national conference in Chicago this summer and had a woman in one of the booths see me and say "I just read your book!" It took me several seconds to realize that she was actually talking to ME. She said she saw my name tag that said "Kay Cassidy, The Cinderella Society" and the thought raced through her mind that the society was real and they'd sent someone to ALA. She was kidding, of course, but I got such a kick out of that. :-) And, of course, having that very first teen early reader send me an email saying how much she loved The Cinderella Society was definitely right up there as well. If email didn't look so goofy when printed, I'd frame that one.

Next up, we have Becca Fitzpatrick, author of Hush, Hush:

Q: Why did you decide to get involved with Living Your Five?

Becca: Making a positive difference has always been something I've tried to do – I can't remember a time in my life when I haven't been motivated to make the world a better place – but as life gets busier and busier, I've found my personal goals getting sidelined. And if there's one thing I've learned in life, it's that nothing gets accomplished without goals. I was drawn to Living Your Five's philosophy: choose five ways you can make a difference in your everyday life. Now that I know my goals, I'm finding that opportunities to fulfill them are popping up everywhere. It feels great to be a part of something bigger than myself and having a way I can show my gratitude for having such a beautiful world to live in.

Q: I have two questions that I always ask my Women Who Rock, the first is a two-parter. What was the first album you bought and the first concert you attended? Be honest, we don't judge, we like to see the roots of our women who rock!

Becca: The first album I bought was Debbie Gibson's Out of the Blue (I LOVED “Foolish Beat”). I remember spending many sleepovers where my friends and I sprayed ourselves with Electric Youth perfume and lip-synced all the songs on Out of the Blue. The first concert I attended was Sawyer Brown – I grew up in Nebraska, and we love our country music!

Q: Tell us about your biggest rock star moment, perhaps it's a moment of real success in your career, a time when you met someone super cool and had that Wayne's World "I'm not worthy" moment, or just a time where you felt like you got the rock star treatment. I get a huge variety of answers for the questions, so it's pretty much whatever "rock star moment" means to you!

Becca: Right before the 1996 Atlanta Games, the Olympic torch relay was scheduled to pass through my hometown of North Platte, Nebraska. North Platte is a teeny tiny town, and the torch was a big deal to us. A handful of great individuals from across the state were selected to carry the torch in the relay. My high school selected two students to escort the torch runners, and when I found out I was one of them, I was honored and ecstatic. During the relay, as I ran beside one of the torch-bearers, he reached over and handed me the torch, letting me run it through town, cheering crowds bracketing me on both sides. It was one of the most amazing moments of my life, partly because I was carrying an Olympic torch, but also because this man showed me what it means to be generous and to think beyond myself. Total rock star moment!

And now let's hear from Tera Lynn Childs, author of Oh.My.Gods and Goddess Bootcamp:

Q: What are your five and how is living them going so far?

Tera: My Five are, in a nutshell: Living a greener life, supporting subsistence/self-sustained living, preserving architectural heritage, disaster relief, and mentoring aspiring writers. The baby steps have begun, and we'll have to wait and see how the results snowball.

Q: What was the first album you bought and the first concert you attended?

Tera: The first album I can remember buying is UB40. I don't even remember which album, just that it was the one with "Red Red Wine" on it. And I only remember buying it because my parents got mad that I wanted to throw away my entire allowance on the cassette.

The first concert I attended was (be prepared to be entirely appalled) was New Kids on the Block. It was summer 1989 and they were playing at the Minnesota State Fair. (Yes, really.) My mom had called in a favor and got me, my cousin, and both our parents seats in the fifth row. The opening acts were Tommy Page and Tiffany. (Yes, really.)

Q: Tell us about your biggest rock star moment, perhaps it's a moment of real success in your career, a time when you met someone super cool and had that Wayne's World "I'm not worthy" moment, or just a time where you felt like you got the rock star treatment.

Tera: My biggest rock star moment was definitely winning the RITA award for Best First Book at this summers Romance Writers of America conference. They announced my name (in the second-to-last category, no less) and I had to climb up on stage in my gold stilettos and my golden dress and give an acceptance speech to a ballroom full of, like, two thousand people. All while jumbo screens projected my image on either side of the stage and hanging in the middle of the room (where I could see myself if I looked up--which is probably why I didn't look up much). It was ... truly overwhelming. And as people texted me and called me and came up to me to say, "Congratulations!" all night, I definitely felt like a rock star.

Last, but not least, we have Alyson Noël, whose most recent books are Evermore and Blue Moon in the Immortals series:


Q: What do you hope Living Your Five will accomplish?

Alyson: I hope it will inspire people (myself included!) to live more consciously in the world, to focus on what’s truly important—our relationship to each other and our planet—and not get caught up in perceived dramas du jour, which are really no more than a distracting time suck. I hope more people will discover that a positive attitude really is life changing, that a random act of kindness can live on—reverberating in ways you may have never considered, that you don’t need deep pockets to commit a random act of charity that can change someone’s life for the better, and I really, really hope it will get people to pause before they hit send on a not-so-nice e-mail message or scathing blog post. Our words have the power to harm or heal, so why not use them to foster some good in the world?

Q: I have two questions that I always ask my Women Who Rock, the first is a two-parter. What was the first album you bought and the first concert you attended? Be honest, we don't judge, we like to see the roots of our women who rock!

Alyson: Since I answered this one last time I was here (Aerosmith Rocks for the album—still love that one!—and Foreigner for the concert), I’ll tell you my seconds which were Led Zeppelin’s Untitled 4th album—the one with Stairway to Heaven (still love, love, love that one!) and for the concert, it was Bow Wow Wow and Missing Persons. Annabella Lwin was crazy/good with the Mohawk and the dancing and still only a teenager at the time!

Q: Tell us about your biggest rock star moment, perhaps it's a moment of real success in your career, a time when you met someone super cool and had that Wayne's World "I'm not worthy" moment, or just a time where you felt like you got the rock star treatment. I get a huge variety of answers for the questions, so it's pretty much whatever "rock star moment" means to you!

Alyson: My Wayne’s World moment was the day Steven Tyler of Aerosmith fame walked onto my flight (I was a flight attendant at the time) and I got to serve him (squee!!!!) and he was really nice! But, since I also answered that one last time around, my second was when Richard Branson (I’ve had a crush on him forever!) hugged me. Twice. Right inside the Virgin Megastore. He’s a really good hugger!

So those are the women behind Living Your Five. Which I hope you will all go visit now in fact by visiting it, you'll have the opportunity to get an entry into today's contest.

Today's Contest:

We've got one big swag pack for today's contest. Alyson, Tera, Becca, and Kay have all donated things such as bookmarks, postcards, buttons, bookplates and yes, a lot of this stuff is signed!!! Kay even threw in a beautiful glass slipper bookmark, the likes of which she gave out during my Cyber Launch Party. And since I think Living Your Five is such an important site to spread the word about, I'm throwing in bookmarks and signed coverflats for both of my books.

As usual, to enter you just leave a comment, perhaps about what your five would be. Then you can gain additional entries by:

+1 for blogging or tweeting about today's Women Who Rock Wednesday blog

+1 for blogging or tweeting about Living Your Five

+1 for visiting Living Your Five and leaving a comment on at least one of the entries there.

+1 for becoming a follower of Living Your Five

Please note your email address and your additional entries in your comment!

I will draw a winner at random next week when author Sara Zarr will be hear to talk about her new book Once Was Lost!

Upcoming Events & Where Should I Read?

For my Chicago area fans I have two great events coming up this weekend and I hope you can make it to one or both of them.

Friday the 25th at the Tamale Hut Cafe, 8300 W. Cermak in North Riverside, I'll be reading at 7:30 pm. I'll probably do an excerpt from Ballads and maybe just maybe share a sneak peek of what I'm working on. Also to further entice you, there is a two for one deal on tamales (which are soooooo good) and it's BYOB and there is an open mic. So my fellow writers, come read your stuff!

Then on Sunday the 27th at 2 pm, I'll be reading at The Old School Records at 7446 W. Madison in Forest Park as part of Arts Fest. Two amazing local authors Billy Lombardo and Don Evans will be reading with me and Tim Broderick will be doing some cool artwork in front of the store.

So please come to these if you can!

Now for those of you who are NOT in Chicago, post-wedding I'm hoping to plan a little bit of travel. Not much, cause I'm broke, but I am hoping to get up to Madison, Wisconsin and I do have a Southwest airfare voucher that needs spending. I was thinking of going to NYC, but I figured I'd try to see where I'd get the biggest turnout. So who wants to see me read where? Worst case scenario if I can't come see you now, hopefully when I have another book out, I'll have money to do a mini tour again.

Ballads of Suburbia Fan Art and Facebook Discussions

The lovely Ritsuka Walker brightened my day by sending me some artwork she did inspired by Ballads of Suburbia. I wanted to share it with you all. Here is Ritsuka's vision of Kara, which she did in Photoshop (a program I really wish I knew how to use!):



And here is Ritsuka's statement about her work:

I made the lines really rough and jagged because I personally think that it depicts Kara perfectly. She's been through a lot, she's rough around the edges, but she's still here. I also made her stance straight forward and in your face. She's finally learned to stand on her own two feet. I also decided to draw her showing off her scars, sort of like a badge of honor for surviving Scoville. Speaking of which, that would be Scoville Park in the background.

I absolutely love seeing how my readers were inspired by my books through their artwork, songs, etc. Last year I did a fan art contest for IWBYJR and I do plan on doing one for Ballads or some sort of contest for Ballads after the wedding. I dunno, what kind of contest would you like to see me run?

I've also been catching up on some blog interviews lately and one posted today with Crystal Reviews. It was a lot of fun to do, so please check it out!

I love doing blog interviews because it leads to interaction with readers and I also love doing online book clubs. I've been answering questions for a book club at the online community, the Viper Room. And it gave me two ideas:

One I really want to know who people would see as which characters in Ballads of Suburbia if it was made into a movie because I have no clue. I had an idea for IWBYJR, but am clueless with Ballads, so tell me your thoughts and I may steal them to answer interview questions someday.

Two, I decided I wanted to give more people the opportunity to ask me about my books and writing, etc, so I've started three new discussion threads on my Facebook Fan Page where you all have the opportunity to become fans and then ask about Ballads, IWBYJR or general writing questions. I plan to try to answer these questions once a week (this may fall apart right around the wedding, but I'll do my best). So if you have questions for me, please head on over and ask them. Hopefully this will be a lot of fun for both of us!