The first time I read this book, it blew me away. I was sucked in by the author’s use of sensuality (and I don’t mean that necessarily in a sexual way, although there are tones of that as well) — Imagine you are a wolf. Do it for just a second. Or if you can’t, then go with a dog. Watch them and how they watch things, how the sniff, how they recognize and deal with one another.

Now layer that over being human.  That is essentially the task Annette Curtis Klause took on and overcame in her book Blood and Chocolate. While other authors hint and dance around and try to overcome the duality of being two things - Ms. Klause (IMHO) hits it on the head.

Not only that, but she goes on to tell a tale so universal in its soul that everyone can identify with it on some level.

Vivian is 16 (yes, darn it. I said 16. DO NOT RENT THE MOVIE unless it’s to mute it and watch Hugh Dancy. . .) and a typical high school girl — Ok, not at all. Vivian is 16 and the only female coming of age in her pack. The boys all show off for her and even the older Gabriel seems to glance her way. But now, after a fire the boys had a hand in, her father is dead, her mother has become a flirt and her whole world has been uprooted and moved to a new town.

Enter sensitive-poet-boy, I mean Aiden. Aiden is the antithesis of the boys she knows - softer, kinder, focused on words and thoughts and feelings instead of the intense physicality that carries the boys she knows with their instincts.

Oh, there is popularity and other girls and other couples and outings and school to deal with. But, in the long run, it’s the same things that attract Vivian to Aiden that eventually pushes them further apart.

The ending is great and she ends up with one of the seven guys I had FELT was right for her. I like the draws of her fighting against what seems like destiny in the end. Of having very clear ideas of what she SHOULD want. I won’t give anything else away, but no other guy could have pulled her out of her emotional state at the end of the book than the one who ended up being the hero.

And she does this all while carrying amazing sub-plots and secondary characters through out the book without causing them to be a distraction

Another book to be studied. Buy it. Mark it up. See if you can layer half as well and hope for the best!

If you want to know who to cross into another world, to create and layer and be honest,

Mary Stewart is one of my all time favorite writers. An agent asked me to pick one and I picked three (the other two were Austen and Hardy) - one seemed so unfair.

My love affair with Ms. Stewart began when I was six. I grew up in the middle of no where and there wasn’t any cable or near by video rental (I hear you gasping) but every summer I was guaranteed of a couple of movies on the second dial channels (Hey, if you know what I mean, you know my age now lol) — The Beach Blanket movies (I said I was 6), Creature Double Feature and most of the 60’s Disney’s movies getting that “It’s been YEARS so we can show these for free” movies.

One of those Disney movies was Moon-spinners - and I watched for it every year. A young British girl in Greece, a handsome adventurer, a nasty bad buy and a hidden treasure. Really, need I say more?

Years later I picked up Ms. Stewart’s Merlin series (first book: The Crystal Cave) and searched frantically for more by her. When I found out she wrote my favorite childhood movie, it began a reading binge seldom seen in non-senior-year-finals-cram sessions.

Ms. Stewart inspires and impresses me with her timeless characters and amazing twists (which are often replciatated to the point of cliche now.) I highly recommend trying her out. She wrote my number one favorite Untrustworthy Narrator (If I told you which book, it would ruin it), some of my favorite plot twists, plays with the idea of never knowing who is truly the bad guy, and brings the ordinary into the extraordinary. Not only that, but she paints lavish word pictures in an amazingly short word count.

Ms. Stewart is an author worthy, not only of reading, but of studying.

This site isn’t by her, but two amazing fans. It’s worth checking out HERE.

Every once in a while a book comes along that so grasps the imagination of a generation that it creates almost its own subculture. Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight does this - I swear. Just go to one of her book signings — or try to. It has an almost cultish feel to it.

And now, there’s a movie. (link has spoilers)

The thing about the book is: I love the book. I hate the book. 

I’ve seen very few books (or movies) that now how to contiunially pull you in emotionally and then up the ante again. On the flip side of that, but the end of book 3 (which I still loved and hated) I was beginning to feel like my emotions were purposefully being played - that every move was specificly made just to make me ache a little more.

Don’t get me wrong, I loved feeling that ache, the angst. Book two made me physically hurt. I’m not exaggerating. It triggered something from calling off my almost married relationship in college - all the sorrow and lost hope rushed back through me and I relived it with the characters.

If you another artist who can play you like that — especially in the last couple years — and you don’t realize it while it’s happening, let me know. Ms. Meyer shows a genius of know how and when to hit just the right cord to resonate not with her or me or you or your friend, but with just about everyone who reads her books.

The love story builds slowly and intensely and (for once) someone wrote a book where teens AREN’T haveing sex for a real and believable reason. The characters are memorable and (I think) we can all find something to relate to in each of them.

So let me know, what did you think?  Did you get sucked in as far as I did?

This week on Richard Curtis’s blog, Publishing in the 21st Century, he discusses ‘Outlines’ — what are they, why are they, why to use them, and how to make the most of them. A definite must read.

Kristen Nelson discusses playing matchmaker for an author and a different agent — Gives us all a little more hope.

At Dystel & Goderich, there’s a great post called:  Michael Bourret asks, “What’s in an advance?”  It’s clear, it’s helpful and it’s straightforward. I’m forwarding it to my best friend who is convinced I’ll be a millionaire when someone finally loves the book as much as he does.

This blog post was written just for me, Ms. Faust doesn’t necessarily KNOW that, but it definitely is. I sent a snail mail to one of my top agents and never heard. So I sent a politely worded (I thought) follow-up email. Still haven’t heard. It was kind of Ms. Faust to talk me out of that tree with her blog “Submission Freak-Outs.”

I very clearly remember the cultures within cultures within cultures in high school.(Yup, I just shied away from counter-culture as the description — it’s more of layered culture, because the school as a whole effects each layer.)

I also remember the difference between that structure in New England versus the midwest. Maybe that’s one of the reasons this book hit home for me. While my Boston friends might not get the importantce of being Drum Major. (I had to EXPLAIN the movie Drumline to some of them!)

But Jennifer Echols Major Crush is more than just a look at a different group’s definition of cool and the power struggle that goes along with it. It’s a sweet look at what it means to be a girl, the roles the people you love expect you to fill and the path you take when you follow your heart.

Virginia and Drew have a lot to get past (beyond his girlfriend and the rumors they both have to deal with) - their own competitve spirits have them pushing away from each other when they’d rather be pulling each other close.

 Jennifer Echols knows how to tell us a great, fun story in a new, interesting way.

I LOVE  a good He Said/She Said book. I said “good,” right?  There aren’t a lot of those.

Lauren Barnholdt’s Two Way Street surpasses good - and goes into “I read it in one sitting, had to go back read it again and put sticky notes all over it” good.

Mismatched-surprise couple Jordan and Courtney are in love — no wait, they broke up — but they’re still driving from Florida to Boston together to start their freshman year of college. Hidden in all the lies, there’s a truth that could be more devisating than the actual break-up.

Jordan is one of those heroes. You know. The guy you aren’t sure you can forgive. Even when you get what he did and why you aren’t sure. . .and then again, maybe you can.

Courtney is a girl we can all relate to - sweet, smart and surprised that the hot player wants her. And then not so surprised when he doesn’t.

I highly recommend Two Way Street. It does one of those things life does: hands you humor while you’re hurting. I mean, what other book could make blaming My Space for basically everything wrong in the world believable?

If you’ve read it, let us know what you think. . .If not, go grab it and get outside!

It’s amazing to me how something first published in 1958 could still ring so true at its core today.

The Witch of Blackbird Pond is about a girl ripped from her own life and thrown into a world far harsher and more alien than she could have imagined. Almost immediately, by doing something she would consider normal at home, she’s branded a witch by one of the new world’s leading citizens.

Everyone who has felt ostracized for being herself knows how Kit feels.

In the meantime, she builds a confusing relationship with fellow outcasts, an uncomfortable child named Prudence, the sailor Nat and a Quaker Hannah. The group meets frequently in happy secrecy until Kit is truly accused of witchcraft.

Persecution, forgiveness, hostility, separateness and love war for the forefront and while prejudice can never completely be overcome, hope triumphs.

As a young adult, I loved this book. It touched the heart of so many struggles young people have finding their way in a foreign world - an adult world. And, reading it again, I felt the same magic pull.

I think it’s time to go to the library and get out more of Mrs. Speare’s classics!

Welcome to my first day of Summer Reads! Monday thru Thursday I’ll be posting thoughts about some of my favorite YA or YA friendly books.  Jump in, comment, let me hear what yours are!

Every once in a while a book comes along that you feel you must, ABSOLUTELY MUST, recommend to everyone you know.

Jay Asher’s Thirteen Reasons Why is just such a book.

It walks through a long night and an even longer tale as Clay follows the heartbreaking tapes made by Hannah, the girl he’d been crushing on who killed herself.

He knows right away that everyone who was on the list of 13 to recieve the tapes was on there for a reason, but he can’t fathom why he was included.

Every chapter sucks you into the next as your heart breaks for Clay, Hannah and everyone else who has ever thought about giving up.

The intensity builds, but not in the “Legends-of-the-fall-what-can-they-do-next” way, but in a realistic and amazingly touchable way.

If you’ve read it, let us know what you think. If not - I HIGHLY recommend this book with one comment: It isn’t soft or easy, but it is amazing.

Grab a book and go read in the sunshine!

I found that, ending the Purple Hearts, one of the things I missed was our weekly “What’s New In Publishing Blogs.” And so, I’m adopting the practice here each Friday — Join me!

This week, Ask Daphne at ktliterary.com has had some great advice columns. One issue I never thought of was addressed: Should we be sending our manuscripts to agents in a format that’s down-loadable to all the new tech-toys? Check out Ask Daphne’s answer HERE.

I’m a big believer in Getting It On The Page — Carrie Lofty is doing a three part series on Caren Johnson’s blog about the Manuscript Diet her work had to go on afterwards HERE.

Gawker’s poll right now? Hottest guy in publishing. Check them, I mean it, out HERE.

Speaking of Publishing Guys, check out the Fashonista’s interviewing Nathan Bransford.

We all hope one day we’ll have to do them. Check out Rachel Shukert on The Publishing Spot letting us all know how to come to love Public Readings.

Also, take my quick and to the point kick-off survey still HERE. I mean, who doesn’t love books and survey monkey?

Looking for a great visual way to summarize your manuscript, poem, song or project? Check out Wordle HERE.

Here’s what it did to my YA Fantasy, Markbearer: