Upcoming YA Books & More

I'm crazy at work on my rewrite of The Shadow Girl of Birch Grove, the young adult novel that will be released by Tor in January 2012. I'll be featuring more YA books here from now on and adding YA sites to my blogroll. If you have any favorite YA booksites please tell me.

Also, if you have any genius ideas for a new title for my book, please share! My editor thinks I need another title. I though of Obscure, but that's too terse and....er, obscure.

Here are some upcoming books of interest.

Wither by Lauren DeStafano (to be released March 2011)

Book Summary:

Thanks to modern science, every human being has become a ticking genetic time bomb—males only live to age twenty-five, and females only live to age twenty. In this bleak landscape, young girls are kidnapped and forced into polygamous marriages to keep the population from dying out.

When sixteen-year-old Rhine Ellery is taken by the Gatherers to become a bride, she enters a world of wealth and privilege. Despite her husband Linden's genuine love for her, and a tenuous trust among her sister wives, Rhine has one purpose: to escape—to find her twin brother and go home.

But Rhine has more to contend with than losing her freedom. Linden's eccentric father is bent on finding an antidote to the genetic virus that is getting closer to taking his son, even if it means collecting corpses in order to test his experiments. With the help of Gabriel, a servant Rhine is growing dangerously attracted to, Rhine attempts to break free, in the limted time she has left.

Lauren DeStafano's Website. What a gorgeous cover and fascinating concept. I'm going to see if I can get a copy of this for a giveaway here.


Blood Magic by Tessa Gratton (to be released May 2011

Book Summary:

For Nick Pardee and Silla Kennicot, the cemetery is the center of everything. Nick is a city boy angry at being forced to move back to the nowhere town of Yaleylah, Missouri where he grew up. He can’t help remembering his mom and the blood magic she practiced – memories he’s tried for five years to escape. Silla, though, doesn’t want to forget; her parents’ apparent murder-suicide left her numb and needing answers. When a book of magic spells in her dad’s handwriting appears on her doorstep, she sees her chance to unravel the mystery of their deaths.

Together they plunge into the world of dark magic, but when a hundred-year-old blood witch comes hunting for the bones of Silla’s parents and the spell book, Nick and Silla will have to let go of everything they believe about who they are, the nature of life and death, and the deadly secrets that hide in blood.

Tessa Gratton's Website

Blessed by Cynthia Leitich Smith (January 2011)

Book Summary:

Quincie P. Morris, teen restaurateuse and neophyte vampire, is in the fight of her life -- or undeath. Even as she adjusts to her new appetites, she must clear her best friend and true love, the hybrid werewolf Kieren, of murder charges; thwart the apocalyptic ambitions of Bradley Sanguini, the seductive vampire-chef who "blessed" her; and keep her dead parents’ restaurant up and running. She hires a more homespun chef and adds the preternaturally beautiful Zachary to her wait staff. But with hundreds of new vampires on the rise and Bradley off assuming the powers of Dracula Prime, Zachary soon reveals his true nature -- and a flaming sword -- and they hit the road to staunch the bloodshed before it’s too late. Even if they save the world, will there be time left to salvage Quincie’s soul?

Cynthia's website.

Read Matthew Shepard's review of Supernatural's last episode, "Like a Virgin," at Den of Geek:

Considering we are now over halfway through the season and I don't know if a seventh season has been considered or not yet, I thought that Sam finding out the truth sooner rather than later was a very positive idea, as it allows the dynamic to move back to the two brothers working well together. Yes, all hell may break loose if Sam's mind wall comes tumbling down, possibly quite literally. But I was worried it was going to be dragged out until the end of the season. Now it's out of the way, we can move on.

I liked the episode, but something felt missing to me. The choreography of the fight sequence was confusing and why the gratuitous San Francisco setting that was so fake? This is one of my many Peeves. Don't even get me started on the many offenses of Monk.

GRATUITOUS VIDEOS OF THE DAY

I was sad to read that Gary Moore, a guitarist who often played with Thin Lizzy, passed away yesterday.



Okay, I'm changing the radio station.

Cavalcade of Contests - Read and be Amazed!

Need a book, but you've already maxed out your gift cards? Here are a few contests you can enter.

Patricia Altner at Patricia's Vampire Notes has an entertaining guest blog from NYT bestselling author Melissa de la Cruz, who's giving away THREE COPIES of Bloody Valentine.

I also find a lot of my books come from images, just cool stuff that I want to write about. I loved the images from that documentary Grey Gardens, this idea of these sort of kooky, useless women—or I should say, utterly useless in productivity and housekeeping, but totally useful for a life they don't lead anymore. These women could never hold down a job or keep house, but they were the kind of women who could throw parties, host salons and be charming and witty.

Jessica at Confessions of a Bookaholic interviews Jana Oliver and has a great contest prize pack that includes Jana's new book, The Demon Trapper's Daughter. The contest runs through Feb. 24!

In most books demons are either considered totally evil or some misunderstood hunky guy who is some (unfortunate) female’s soul mate. I wanted to dig a little deeper into the types of demons, their relationship with Lucifer and their purpose in this world. That allowed me to craft different types of Hellspawn ranging from the (mostly) harmless little guys all the way up to an Archfiend (your worst nightmare come true).

Roxanne Rhoads at Fang-tastic Books has a fun Q&A with Alyson Chase and a contest for TWO COPIES of Alyson's new book, The Werewolf Upstairs.

Since I live closer to New York than Hollywood, I thought I’d try writing a novel. I monitored my reading taste for a while and discovered I liked reading the hot stuff! After I made that admission and stopped blushing, I turned one of my screenplays into a steam bath of a novel.

Dark Faerie Tales has an interview with Michelle Rowen and a contest for Nightshade, her first book in the Jillian Conrad series.

My favorite part is the fact that since I’m aiming for the darker end of the spectrum, I don’t need to hold back anything when I’m writing. I can give the story everything it needs—from sex to violence to salty language. I write without thinking about anything but the story and give it whatever it and the characters need on a scene-to-scene basis.

Fresh Fiction is having a contest for one of Lori Handeland's Nightcreature novels, which runs through Feb. 7.


Fresh Fiction also has a contest for an autographed copy of Bonded by Blood by Laurie London and a $25 Sephora gift card. Contest runs through Feb. 7.

GRATUITOUS VIDEOS OF THE DAY

My themes usually choose themselves. For some reason I've got Muse's "Supermassive Black Hole" stuck in my head.





I haven't posted one of these Guy of Ghisborne vids in months. Because he should be a vampire.

Delirium by Lauren Oliver Reviews & Paper Cut Reviews

One of the hawt new releases is the dystopian young adult novel Delirium by Lauren Oliver, author of Before I Fall. The first thing to notice about this book is that the cover design strongly mimics that of best-selling Beautiful Darkness and Beautiful Creatures.  Publishers Weekly has an interesting article on the final design for Delirium, without once mentioning that it's taken directly from Beautiful Darkness.

Developed entirely in-house, the final cover design was, Fitzsimmons says, “the result of a fun and collaborative effort between Hilary and me. We worked extensively with our production team to finalize the best combination of elements for printing.”

We at Vampire Wire would like to nominate these designers for Vampire Wire's 2011 Copy Catter, Dirty Ratter Awards.  (Information soon to come.) I mean, copying a cover design is hokay, but, cheezus, give a little credit to the person who originally came up with the concept.

Here's the summary for Delirium:

There was a time when love was the most important thing in the world. People would go to the end of the earth to find it. They would tell lies for it. Even kill for it. Then, at last, they found the cure. Now, everything is different. Scientists are able to eradicate love, and the government demands that all citizens receive the cure upon turning eighteen. Lena Haloway has always looked forward to the day when she'll be cured. A life without love is a life without pain: safe, measured, predictable, and happy. But then, with only ninety-five days left until her treatment, Lena does the unthinkable.

Visit Lauren Oliver's website.
Read Chapter One of Delirium.

Original cover art for Delirium

So I thought I'd list some reviews and let you decide if you want to pick up a copy or not. You may like or dislike the book based on your own ideas of love.

• The Compulsive Reader says, "Lauren Oliver wields a mesmerizing power over her readers in her latest book. Delirium and the world it is set in is fascinating--it's much like our own, only with the absence of love people are controlled by the government in being told who they must marry, and are kept in a caste-like social system to keep order, but really everyone's lives are empty and meaningless without the love needed to generate all of the passionate emotions and bring about change." Read The Compulsive Reader's review.

• Jennifer at Reading with Tequila says, "Is the love story in Delirium realistic in the society of the book? Sure, but it's also unbelievably annoying. I'm usually all for rebelling against dystopian society, but the argument against love in Delirium is rather convincing." Read Jennifer's review.

• Miss Remmers' Review says, "... no other book has had me so emotionally invested in it. Lena was fantastic character whose transformation was flawless from government follower to all out rule-breaking rebel. But it was Alex who tugged at my heart in every way."  Read the entire review.

• Ana at The Book Smugglers stirred up a lot of discussion with her review: "My main question concerning this book is: why? WHY would love be considered a disease in the first place? You see, the thing about dystopias is that they always come under the guise of a Utopia – or at least set out to be an utopia and then things go wrong and ergo, dystopia." Read the entire review.

BLOG TO WATCH: I've come across Paper Cut Reviews before and it's a terrific paranormal/urban fantasy blog run by Steph, who says:

I love love love to read and review!!! I'm hooked on Paranormal Romance, Urban Fantasy, Sci-Fi, YA and Horror books. I thought I might try my own little fun blog so Paper Cut Reviews was born! Enjoy and Let's talk Books and Film:) Remember that the reviews I write are just my opinion so take it as you will.

Paper Cut Reviews includes film reviews written by Rufino, Steph's husband, and the site has a separate tab so you can read his reviews of sci-fi, fantasy, and action flicks.

The blog has a nice clean, easy to navigate layout, plenty of cool book covers, and great contests, like the current awesome contest for several new releases, including: Unseen by Rachel Caine; Nightshade by Michele Rowen; Blood Wyne by Yasmine Galenorn; and Visions of Magic by Regan Hastings. I'm adding Paper Cuts Reviews to my blogroll (right) and I suggest you add it to your faves.

GRATUITOUS VIDEOS OF THE DAY

Oh, I think the theme will be videos set to classic rock songs. Yeah, Gerard Butler is "TNT" as Dracula 2000.



Eric Northman keeps a "Stiff Upper Lip."



Mick St. John is bbbbbad to the bone.



Dean and Sam Winchester were "Born to Be Wild." Okay, these captions are too cheezy, even for me, and I celebrate all things cheezilous.

Celebrating Cranky Reviewers, First Grave on the Right, and Rufus Sewell

Jen at Bite Club has posted True Blood news, with lots of casting info.

I love that Ana at The Book Smugglers is a cranky persnickety reader, and I am enjoying her grumbling against the hype of some hugely hyped books, probably because I'm a cranky persnickety reader. (I once put down a highly-lauded book because the author mentioned cable car bells ringing in a neighborhood where there aren't any cable cars.)

I don’t finish all the books I start. There are several reasons why I do not finish a book and they vary wildly: it could be because the writing is uninspiring or the characters don’t ring true. Or because the world-building is not interesting or lacks inherent logic. I am not above pet peeves either, and sometimes even one little thing will make me put the book away for good.

Okay, Ana is talking about A Discovery of Witches and its tremendous hype prior to the release next week.I got an email from the publicist offering me giveaways and she offered buttons saying things like "I'm a Human," and "I'm a Vampire," and "Where is Ashmole?" I know I'm not the only one immature enough to laugh at that last one.  By the time I got the buttons (with no other information), I'd forgotten what book they were promoting.

Congratulations to Darynda Jones for today's release of her debut novel First Grave on the Right. Darynda is also repped by my awesome agent, Alexandra Machinist, and you can read a Q&A with her at Spacefreighters Lounge.

Here's a description of the book:

Charley sees dead people. That’s right, she sees dead people. And it’s her job to convince them to “go into the light.” But when these very dead people have died under less than ideal circumstances (i.e. murder), sometimes they want Charley to bring the bad guys to justice. Complicating matters are the intensely hot dreams she’s been having about an Entity who has been following her all her life...and it turns out he might not be dead after all. In fact, he might be something else entirely. 

I'll try to get Darynda here for a visit with a book contest. For now, you can read an excerpt at the publisher's website.


GRATUITOUS VIDEOS OF THE DAY

TisReina, an aspiring romance author who's also from the San Francisco Bay Area, gave me a head's up that she's made a new video tribute to one of our favorite actors. (By "our" I mean hers and mine.) Her clips of Rufus Sewell are set to Kylie Minogue's "Love at First Sight." Ah, I'd still like someone to made a book video for me, better than the crapulous slide shows I've made, and use Rufus as Ian Ducharme. Thanks for the share, TisReina!



I'm totally liking "Thing For You" by Jann Arden. The video's edited by RobbieShiek, who used several clips from Shakespeare Retold with Rufus Sewell playing the Petruccio part and the marvelous Scottish actress Shirley Henderson as furious and fierce Kate. This is probably my favorite modern retelling of the comedy.



Okay, now we return to our regular vampire programming with this fab and new Eric Northman tribute set to Papa Roach's "Getting Away with Murder." Editing by MissoOBabyOo.



This is quite a lovely brand new Damon/Elena/The Vampire Diaries video set to Pink's "Fuckin' Perfect," which is surprisingly poignant. Editing by LuvJohnnyx3.