Spotlighting Mandy Hubbard's PRADA AND PREJUDICE

Mandy Hubbard is here today for the Debs Blog Tour!

Mandy grew up on a dairy farm outside Seattle, where she refused to wear high heels until homecoming—and hated them so much she didn’t wear another pair for five years. A cowgirl at heart, she enjoys riding horses and quads and singing horribly to the latest country tune. She’s currently living happily ever after with her husband (who, sadly, is not a Duke) and her daughter (who is most definitely a princess).

In PRADA AND PREJUDICE, Callie just wants to impress the popular girls when she buys a pair of Prada heels on her class trip to London. She didn’t plan on tripping, conking her head, and waking up in 1815! Now she’s wearing corsets with her designer pumps, eating bizarre soups, and breaking up engagements. If only the nineteen year old Duke of Harksbury wasn’t so bloody annoying, she might have a little fun in Austen-Era England…

Here are Mandy's answers to the Thorough Three...

NM: What is the age of your protagonist/s?

MH: 15

NM: What is the single, most important bit of advice you'd give to the You that was the same age as your protagonist/s?

MH: Boys are not as scary as you think they are. Also, being 5'10 is a good thing. It might not seem like it now becuase all the boys are still really short, but don't worry about being so tall-- rock a pair of heels now and then. It won't kill you.

NM: Complete the following sentences:

Everyone should definitely, for sure _____________.

You should NEVER, EVER ___________. But if you absolutely must, make sure to ____________.

MH: Everyone should definitely, for sure, read FAIRY LUST by Cyn Balog. Because it rocks.

You should NEVER, EVER try to ban a book, but if you absolutely must, make sure you only ban it in your own house and not in the whole freaking school district.

Thanks, Mandy!

To find out more about Mandy and her work, visit her site. To order P & P, click here!

What a wonderful way to start the week! Here is a snippet from an online review that a friend forwarded to me:

I loved this character and I couldn't put down the book. It was suspenseful, and at the same time, it was thoughtful and real. I felt the ebb and flow of Sam's emotions and her blossoming maturity, and I was fascinated by her journey into discovering her cultural and religious roots. I recommend this book to everyone, especially teens. It is unique, yet familiar in its exploration of a girl's journey to becoming a woman, and it offers a thoughtful glimpse at contemporary history. I found it to be thoroughly unforgettable.

Suh-weeet!

Spotlighting Sarah Ockler's TWENTY BOY SUMMER

Today, we have Sarah Ockler, author of TWENTY BOY SUMMER in our spotlight!

Sarah wrote and illustrated her first book at age six—an adaptation of Steven Spielberg's E.T. Still recovering from her own adolescence, Sarah now writes for young adults. After several years of wandering between New York City and Denver, she and her husband Alex now live in Upstate New York with lots of books and an ever-expanding collection of sea glass.

TWENTY BOY SUMMER is about best girlfriends Anna and Frankie who conspire to find a boy for Anna’s first summer romance while on vacation in California. But Anna harbors a painful secret that threatens their lighthearted plan and their friendship.

Here are Sarah's answers to the Thorough Three...

NM: What is the age of your protagonist/s?

SO: 16

NM: What is the single, most important bit of advice you'd give to the You that was the same age as your protagonist/s?

SO: The only person you need to impress is yourself. Of course, 16-year-old me wouldn't buy that advice. And 30-something me still struggles to remember it, too! But it's true. I wasted a lot of time back then trying to fit in to a place where I didn't belong by acting like someone I wasn't.

NM: Complete the following sentences:

Everyone should definitely, for sure _____________.

You should NEVER, EVER ___________. But if you absolutely must, make sure to ____________.

SO: Everyone should definitely, for sure try new stuff, like listening to a new genre of music, chowing on some funky regional cuisine, or trying out a totally crazy hairstyle.

You should NEVER, EVER cut your own hair. But if you absolutely must, make sure to use super sharp scissors and not the plastic safety kind. That just makes a mess!

Thanks for stopping by, Sarah!

To find out more about Sarah and her work, go here. To buy a copy of TBS, click here!

The little one is out of school. This means that my time is no longer my own until summer camp starts (on which day I shall whoop with delight and dance on our furniture to celebrate being in possession of said Time once again!).

I will update when I can, but it is summer and that means a s-l-o-w hush all across the Publishosphere.

However, I have some reading/signing/discussion events on the horizon and I will be updating with those, so stay tuned! And, of course, the Debs Blog Tour, like the Titanic (or is it my heart?), will go on . . .

*whispers* The other night, H and I got to go out. Like, really out -- it was almost like the old days with loud, thrumming music and sweaty people dancing too close to you.

Except this was not a night club. This was a show. And it was one of the most amazing experiences, ever. If you're in or around NYC, you MUST check it out. It is called Fuerza Bruta (Brute Force); it is participatory, active, and you are visually and audio-ly (auditorily? earily?) hyper-stimulated throughout, but not in a bad way.

On the floor, we -- the observers/participants -- were young, old, gay, straight, white, brown, male, female (someone even brought their young children, though I wouldn't recommend this, personally) and we all had the same "seats." The lights were out most of the time and it didn't matter how much you owned or what suit or shoes you had on. During that performance space and time, we all had to move around the stage ("stage" being a relative term referring to conveyor belts, people dangling from cables in the ceiling, and sliding through giant plastic pools above our heads) as we became part of the set. We watched the characters breaking out, breaking free, yelling, pounding and screaming their way through the disconnect in life.

Here is one of my favorite bits from the show...



And here I am jumping up and down like I still have the knees of a teenager...



Big fun. Seriously -- next time you're in New York...