Guest Blogger Tomorrow

Don't forget to stop by tomorrow for guest blogger, award winning author of urban fantasy and medieval historic romantic suspense for both the Young Adult and Adult--Terry Spear. You can visit Terry's website at http://www.terryspear.com.

See you Tomorrow!

Vote for Your Fav Period Drama

I added a Poll for your Favorite Period Drama to the blog. Yes, I am a self admitted Period Drama fanatic. Don't believe me? Visit my YouTube channel-JaneJunkie--and check out my fan vids and a glimpse of my favorite man in a cravat. Go ahead and vote. The Poll closes at the end of the month. Hope everyone is having a good weekend.

Socially Unacceptable

Well, as promised, we have a guest Young Adult author with us today. I hope you will welcome Maryann Miller as she talks to us about being 'Socially Unacceptable.' I know we've all probably 'been there done that'. And be sure to check out her book, Friends Forever.

We all remember those horrible days of middle school and high school when our social standing depended on who we were friends with and what kind of clothes we wore. Other than a change of setting and a change of attire, I’m sure the social posturing started in ancient times when Garthea was kicked out of the clan for inappropriate use of a bear skin and continues unaltered through present time.

When I was in high school, I was in the Outcast group. You remember that group. It was made up of kids who didn’t belong to the Popular group, the Jocks, or the Nerds. Among the many things that made us socially unacceptable was the fact that we were a bit lacking in the looks department. Not that any of us had faces that would make little kids run away screaming, we were just plain, ordinary, and some of us wore glasses. That alone was a severe stigma in high school in the 60s.

I remember meeting a former classmate a year out of high school, and laughing at his reaction. “You’re not THAT Maryann,” he said. “You can’t be. She was… uh… well… You sure have changed.”

We in the Outcasts were also not quite good enough athletically to be on a sport team, and some of us just hid our brain power because we didn’t want to be with the Nerds. In our minds, that group was lower than ours, even though most folks thought otherwise.

One of the things I liked best about belonging to the Outcasts, was I could pretty much do anything I wanted and it wouldn’t affect my standing. Think about it. I was already on the lowest rung of the ladder. So I just clung to it the best I could and looked forward to the day when I would be out of high school and this silliness of social groupings would end.

I hadn’t realized how this social phenomenon repeats itself until one day when my oldest daughter was lamenting the fact that her best friend had suddenly qualified for the Popular group, while she was still relegated to something closer to Outcast. Overnight it had become socially unacceptable for said friend to associate with my daughter. I was in the middle of my Mommy Speech 112, telling her to buck up, that this, too, shall pass, when I realized it wouldn’t.

People may grow up, but they don’t really grow up, and it seems we are destined to play these silly little social games until the day we die. The way we play them just becomes more subtle and harder to figure out.

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Maryann Miller has won numerous writing awards including being a semi-finalist at the Sundance Institute for her screenplay, A Question Of Honor. Her work has appeared in regional and national publications, and the Rosen Publishing Group in New York published her non-fiction books for teens, including the award-winning Coping with Weapons and Violence In School and On Your Streets. Her young adult novel, Friends Forever, which was inspired by her daughter’s experience in school, is available as an e-book from Kindle. You can visit Maryann and see her other books at her Web site at http://www.maryannwrites.com.

Struck by Conscience

I'm so pleased to share more about my YA short novella, Stuck by Conscience. It will release with Whimsical Publications sometime this year. I haven't been given a release date but all good things come to those who wait...and pine...and agonize. ;) I just received the cover and I LOVE IT! It fits the story perfectly. What do you think?

Here is the blurb:

I, Charisma Mansfield, do solemnly swear that... I never asked to be popular. I never asked to be voted Prom Queen. I definitely never asked to have an invisible pixie perched on my shoulder whispering her opinions into my ear 24/7. But of all the things I never asked for, this is the worst one yet—when brooding but gorgeous Heath Ruvelas (my next door neighbor and the guy I used to be best friends with before jr. high) rescued me from drowning in the school pool. My already bizarre life would never be the same.

A New Year and New Goals

Happy New Year!! At least, I hope it will be a good year. I'd hate to think that nothing but disappointment and tragedy awaited me. (Shakes Head) Don't mind me, I've just been watching way too much news today. Okay, I'm better now.

So...a new Year and new Goals. Do any of you make resolutions in January? Yeah, me neither. I am not a resolutions kind of a girl because more than likely I'd break them within the first week. My life is way too chaotic to make year-long resolutions. However, I do make goals for myself.

One of the first things I do as a New Year looms on the horizon is to set reading goals for myself. Yes, the world is falling apart all around me and I'm more concerned about how many books I'll read in a year. (See too much news--must wrestle remote control away from my dh.)

Do you set reading goals? It might be a good idea. Maybe twenty-five books in a year. That would be fabulous and totally do-able. My goal is always fifty books by December 31st. And I might add that this year (as crazy as it was) I read 101 books! That's a lifetime record for me.

I'd love to hear from you. How many books did you read this past year? Have a goal for this year? What's the magic number?

Next time I'll share some of the highlights of my reading year.

It's A Go!

I know it's been awhile since I posted on this blog. I was so gung-ho over the summer, but then I had to take a step back until things got settled. Well, things are shaping up. I've received a contract for my first YA story. I'll be sharing more of that in time. I plan to line up some YA Authors in the New Year and we will just have a good old time here on the YA Fiction Blog. I hope you all will join me and bring your friends. ;)

In the meantime, I wish you all a blessed holiday season. Take care. Until 2010!

Enthusiasm by Polly Shulman (Review)

Enthusiasm by Polly Shulman

G. P. Putnam's Sons
Romance
ISBN: 0399243895
208 pages

2006

Ages 12 and up

Enthusiasm is a downright charming book. I don’t know how else to describe it. It is a young adult romance, but any romantic with a sense of humor (from 12 to 92) will enjoy this straightforward and sweet story.

Julie is 15 and about to start her Sophomore year of high school. It is her friend Ashleigh who is the Enthusiast. When Ashleigh finds her new “thing,” she enters it heart and soul. This has included things from candy making, reptiles, favorite rock bands, the Little House books, and now Pride and Prejudice. Now Julie’s friend will wear only long skirts and speaks in the archaic language of Georgian England. She even has devised a plan for the two of them to crash the fall dance at the local all boys private school to find their Darcys.

In the process, they do meet two nice boys – one of which is Julie’s Mysterious Stranger who she had been seeing around town all summer. By the end of the night, Julie is swept away by him, and the next morning she finds out that her friend, Ashleigh, has found her Darcy too. The problem is that Julie and Ashleigh have chosen the same guy to play their Darcy, Charles Grandison Parr. So, now Julie is bound to keep her mouth closed as loyalty to Ashleigh. As the story progresses, the girls are thrown into the path of the boys even more as they become involved in a play, which the two guys wrote the songs and lyrics for, at the all boys school.

This is a book of comedy as well as romance and other issues of family, friendship, and first loves. It was very well written and interesting especially finding all the Jane Austen and other literary references. The author has depicted teen age relationships extremely well. And her poetry is terrific. (Parr is a poet). I found myself really starting to feel everything that the heroine of the story was going through. As Parr would walk into the coffeehouse where Julie was enjoying a beverage, my heartbeat sped up just like the heroine’s. It is a clean, sweet story that I would recommend for pre-teen girls and up.

See the author’s website at http://www.pollyshulman.com/ I read this book a couple years ago and I keep hoping she’ll write another YA novel soon. Maybe if we send her enough fan mail she’ll go ahead and do it.

Praise for Enthusiasm

“Winsome and witty, … Enthusiasm has the makings of an instant classic.” —Time Magazine

“Enthusiasm, like Pride and Prejudice, bubbles over with romantic misunderstandings and comic confusion.…The literary allusions throughout add a sense of fun.”
—The New York Times Book Review (an Editors’ Choice book)

*“Wry, engaging…While familiarity with Austen’s world …will deepen readers’ appreciation for Shulman’s impressive first novel, it is no means a prerequisite to enjoying this involving and often amusing narrative.” —Booklist, starred review

“Clever plotting and quirky, often elegant writing that should please the literary crowd while keeping romance lovers engaged. Several cuts above the usual fare.” —Kirkus

“A charming romantic comedy.” —School Library Journal