I Would Have Given Anything To Be Like...

Okay, well, there's no way I can beat LiLa's post from yesterday. I'm not even going to try. But today is the NON-blogfest! I hope to see a lot of "I Would Have Given Anything To Be Like..." posts out there today!

It's not too late to participate, AND you don't have to read LIKE MANDARIN to know what's going on. (But you should order it and read it, because it's fantastic.) You can click over to Kirsten Hubbard's blog to find out more, but basically, she's asking who you would have given anything to be like when you were a teenager.

You know me, I rarely follow rules. So instead of focusing on teen-Elana (cuz that's SCARY), I'm going to go for Elana-as-she-is-now.

I would give anything to be like Matthew Rush. He is funny and helpful and all around fantastic. He helps other people. He lets them learn from his mistakes. And he always emails me back.

I would give anything to be like Candace Ganger. She faces life with more backbone than anyone else I know. She isn't afraid to breathe, and breathe deep. She lets us in. She is powerful to me.

I would give anything to be like Shannon O'Donnell. She has more enthusiasm than anyone I know. She teaches and parents and laughs and just is the epitome of "comfort" for me.

I would give anything to be like Ally Condie. She is a brilliant writer, and so, so sophisticated. The kind of sophistication I can only dream about. And eloquent. She'd never use the word "dude." (#crap) But she's super-nice to me when I do.

I would give anything to be like L.T. Elliot. She simply "gets" me, and doesn't try to make me be anyone other than who I already am. She is strong. She is funny. She is who I want to be when I grow up.

Lastly, I would give anything to be like my husband. He never gets bugged by stuff. He is a great teacher. He is caring, and kind, and patient, and he puts up with me. (He's also going to make his blogging debut next week! Get excited.) He is slow when I'm fast, right when I'm wrong, strong when I'm weak.

I hope you've been tweeting with the #IWantToBeLike hashtag! You can win a copy of LIKE MANDARIN this Saturday. And dude, your post on who you would give anything to be like, is like, the perfect twitter fodder.

Who do you admire right now in your life?

And the winner of the super shiny, tasty, luscious MANDARIN glaze lip gloss is: C.K. Bryant! Congrats, Christine! Email me, okay? Okay.

Wyoming, Wherefore Art Thou, Wyoming?

Okay, so I'm not the best example of camping or anything, but there's something about wide open spaces that appeals to me. I love feeling the vastness of the universe, like the weight of the air could smother me, press me into the earth.

Thus, when I read LIKE MANDARIN, I fell in love with the setting: the badlands of Wyoming. It's not your typical setting, but it is gorgeous--and it becomes a character all it's own. I've driven through Wyoming, and it is breathtaking in it's own way.

Let me illustrate:

The badlands

LOVE this barn!

Okay, this makes me like winter a little more.

This is the road to anywhere.

Okay, so I like cowboys. Sue me.

And be sure to read Kirsten's post on The Serendipity of Setting. It's beyond awesome.

Where do you love to visit? If you could go anywhere, where would it be?

Leave a comment with you answer and you could win this:

That's right! MANDARIN lip gloss for those blistery Wyoming winds. I just want you to know the label says "super shiny tasty lip gloss." That's a selling point right there.

Oh! And I've been tagged on Christine's blog. So go check that action out.

Why I Want To Be LIKE KIRSTEN HUBBARD

In pictures, because they say so much more than words. And hello? Reason #1 is because of how freaking photogenic Kirsten is.

Not just because she's holding my book. Seriously.

With her book, LIKE MANDARIN, and her Delacorte people!

Uh, hello? Beautiful.

And her book LIKE MANDARIN has:

Can you feel the hugeness of the universe?

I love barns. There's something magical about them.

Breathtaking.

Need I say more?

So you should start stalking her now. She's awesome.
Website
Blog
Facebook
Goodreads
Enter to win LIKE MANDARIN
Twitter
YA Highway
The Contemps

And dude! Lisa and Laura and I have joined forces to bring you some amazing LIKE MANDARIN events this week.

1. NON-blogfest on Wednesday, March 16. You can blog about who you would have given anything to be like when you were a teenager. Use this graphic, and make sure you participate in Kirsten's "I Would Have Given Anything To Be Like..." blog tour. You could win a LIKE MANDARIN swag pack and/or a signed copy of the book.

If you participate in the NON-blogfest (there will be no Linky! This is not a blog-fest! However, if you email me your link, I will tweet it. Better yet, tweet it yourself--see #2 below), you'll be entered for a copy of the book as per Kirsten's guidelines.

Win/Win.

2. Twitter. Use the hashtag #IWantToBeLike any time this week, and you could win one of two copies of LIKE MANDARIN. LiLa and I will both draw one winner on Saturday, March 19 from the #IWantToBeLike feed for a copy of this amazing book.

3. Stay tuned on my blog--as well as Lisa and Laura's--this week for other fun LIKE MANDARIN giveaways!

If you can't participate, and even if you can, who would you have given anything to be like?

Tips For Becoming A Better Writer

This is what I told the junior high schoolers I talked to this week. Okay, the last one I meant to tell them, and I forgot. Sue me.

To Become A Better Writer:
1. Entertain yourself. I think it's really important to read a lot of books in the genre you want to write in, and watch a lot of movies.

By reading, you know what's current in the market, you know what's been done and what others are doing, you can learn how a story comes to life with words.

By watching movies, you can see the way a story unfolds in only a couple of hours. You usually can't do that, or identify the points of a story, as easily while reading. But with movies? You totally can.

So entertain yourself.

2. Write a lot. And allow yourself to write badly. I think you get better and better at craft, at storytelling, at becoming the kind of author you want to be, by writing. A lot. And what you love.

3. Somehow, over the next few years (the kids were in eighth grade), you have to develop an insane amount of self-confidence. Because most of us receive an insane number of rejections. In fact, I've come to realize that every single author out there has a story. And usually a really, really good one that always ends in the same way: Never give up.

4. Be patient. Publishing takes a really long time.

(And that's where I stopped with the writing clubbers.)

But since then, I wish to add:
5. Write in a journal. How I wish I had my teenage impressions, thoughts, and feelings. Talk about a gold mine of emotional info for a YA novel!

What are your tips for becoming a better writer?

DEMONGLASS by Rachel Hawkins

All righty, people. This week's recommendation is DEMONGLASS by Rachel Hawkins, and it's an important one because...

1. I don't normally like sequels/series. I know, I know, some of you are dumbfounded. See, I like new characters and new worlds, and it takes a lot to convince me to spend some of my valuable reading time on characters I already know and love.

But DEMONGLASS? Dude, it's what every sequel should aspire to be. It's a novel all it's own. It has a real story. Not what I call a "bridge story" = one that gets me from what started in book 1 to the end in book 3.

And I liked that. I liked that I didn't have to remember a whole bunch of stuff from the first book (HEX HALL--well worth your valuable reading time) in order to understand what was going on in DEMONGLASS. I liked that the story grew and changed and expanded into something promising for book 3.

2. It's funny. And holy Jerry Seinfeld, people. Funny is HARD. I've tried to write funny. I can't. It takes a real witty writing bone I just don't have. So while DEMONGLASS is funny, it's also emotional and angsty. The combination of the two is a real win for me, because that's how my life it.

Rollercoaster of angst + joy + laughter + loss + happiness + smiling + grief + crying + elation = Elana's life.

And that's mirrored in DEMONGLASS, so I really felt a connection to the main character, Sophie.

I'm glad I spent some time with a sequel. If you've read HEX HALL, you should definitely make sure to get DEMONGLASS. And if you haven't read either? Dude, fix that. They're both fantastic.

How do you feel about sequels? Read any you've really loved lately?

Check out what the other Bookanistas are up to this week at the Reading Room.

Or on their blogs:

• LiLa Roecker shines a light on Clarity
• Christine Fonseca joins The Liar Society - with giveaway
• Shelli Johannes-Wells swoons over Possum Summer
• Scott Tracey leaps for The Liar Society - with giveaway
• Myra McEntire invites Lisa & Laura Roecker into the fort
• Beth Revis hosts a blog tour stop for Like Mandarin
• Carolina Valdez Miller gushes over Imaginary Girls
• Bethany Wiggins falls for A Change of Heart
• Shana Silver is mad for Bad Taste in Boys
• Carrie Harris drinks in Bloodthirsty
• Sarah Frances Hardy loves The Liar Society
• Veronica Rossi delights in Delirium
• Stasia Ward Kehoe wonders at Where She Went

The Power of Blogger

Okay, so my water heater went out on Friday. Again. Seriously. AGAIN.

I didn't shower on Friday, and I'm pretty cranky when I don't get to stand in hot water for hours on a Saturday.

And, dude, water heaters are not cheap. So I wasn't real happy about replacing ours. AGAIN.

I keep saying again. See, we'd just replaced our water heater a year or two ago. I spent a couple of hours on Friday morning (before work, sans shower) trying to find the invoice or duplicate check.

Of course I couldn't. Small pieces of paper and I are not friends. They hate me. I hate them.

Anyway, I knew it'd only been a couple of years, and I knew it had been cold (because when you're standing in your garage shivering, praying hoping pleading the pilot light will stay on, you remember).

But I couldn't find the small pieces of paper.

So what did I do?

I remembered I'd blogged about it. And I went to blogger, and I looked up the post. And I can tell you that I replaced my water heater on March 27, 2009.

And again on March 5, 2011.

Who needs money anyway? Or hot water for that matter? As long as you have blogger, you're good.

Have you ever used blogger for something, uh, unconventional?

Writing & Illustrating For Young Readers (and other cool stuff)

The Writing and Illustrating for Young Readers Conference is back for another incredible year! Spearheaded by author Carol Lynch Williams, the conference aims to “lift” the craft of writers nationwide by providing a forum for interaction between industry professionals and published and/or aspiring writers. The 2011 year will feature a bevy of workshops with nationally best-selling authors and illustrators, afternoon sessions with publishing professionals, the opportunity to interact with agents and editors, writing contests, and much more.

Registration is now open for the 2011 conference; however, morning workshops are filling quickly. Novel classes with publishing luminaries such as Martine Leavitt and Holly Black have already sold out. The faculty roster also includes nationally-renowned Kathleen Duey, A.E. Cannon, illustrator Kevin Hawkes, and Claudia Mills, among others.

If you live anywhere near Salt Lake City, or can get into Salt Lake City, this is one of the best conferences ever! And hey, we could meet and do lunch!

Find out more at the WIFYR facebook page, their twitter, or their YouTube channel. And stay tuned for some crazy-exciting stuff from none other than one of my all-time favorite authors, Kathleen Duey! *tiny squee*

Other Cool Stuff: Stasia Ward Kehoe's AUDITION cover was released last week. All I can say is "Yum." Stasia is an amazing person, and she's doing some fun things on her blog. Check out what her "Year of Auditions" is all about.

Happy book birthday to LIKE MANDARIN by Kirsten Hubbard! You guys, you'd love this book. I'm not going to give away too much, but make sure you check in every day next week for some amazing amazingness that's all related to LIKE MANDARIN!



What kind of cool stuff do you have going on around you? Do share.

The World of Possession

Okay, so today is March 7. It's the three-month mark until Possession comes out on June 7.

In honor of that, I'm going to be doing a monthly contest: One that launches on March 7th (that's today), one on April 7th, and one on May 6th.

All three contests will be run through the Possession Facebook fanpage. So you can comment here--and you know I love your comments--but if you want to enter and win, you have to do it on the FB fanpage.

Here's what we're doing this month: Your greatest POSSESSION.

In the dystopian society of Possession, everything is mandated by someone else. Someone smarter than you. A Thinker. What classes you take. What you wear. Who you get to hang out with. With that in mind, this contest is going to focus on one particular banned item.

From Possession, where Vi (the female MC) describes something Jag (the male MC) is wearing:

He wore a necklace. Jewelry is against the rules in the Goodgrounds.

But here was a boy. Wearing jewelry. The necklace didn’t hang down onto his chest, but barely encircled his throat. It looked like it choked him—almost. The white rocks were shaped like cylinders with different colored jewels alternating between them. Red, blue, purple, and orange. The gems sparkled even though there was no light source in the shelter. Almost like an internal light radiated from them.

And for this oh-my-heck-there's-only-three-months-until-Possession-comes-out contest you can win one of Jag's chokers!

This is not my sexy neck. But yowsa! That is a sexy necklace.

To enter:
1. Go to the Possession Facebook fanpage. Like it.
2. On the FB fanpage DISCUSSION tab, join the discussion and tell us your greatest possession.
3. Do this by Friday, March 25.
4. A winner will be drawn for this fabulous against-the-rules necklace and announced on the Facebook fanpage wall on Monday, March 28.

You can tweet or blog or facebook about the contest, but I'm not doing extra entries. Yeah, I am just that lazy (and not that smart).

Can you imagine living in a world where you can't even wear jewelry?

Also, get thee over to the WriteOnCon site! Major announcement today! MAY-JOR.

And winners! These five people have won signed copies of THE LIAR SOCIETY by Lisa and Laura Roecker. Please email me (elanajohnson(at)gmail(dot)com with your mailing address.)
1. Tere Kirkland
2. Gabrielle at Biased Book Reviews
3. Jennie Englund
4. Aik at The Bookaholics
5. Peggy Eddleman

My Social Networking Rules

I suppose that title could be interpreted in two different ways. I'll leave it up to the reader to determine. Ha!

Recently I've been attending conferences, and I have a few more sprinkled throughout the spring/early summer months. I also participate in the WriteOnCon monthly chats. I see a question come up all the time: What social networking sites should I be on? Will you take on clients who don't have a blog/who don't tweet?

I sat on a marketing and publicity panel at one of the conferences. I've been stewing over my social networking efforts and I've realized that I have rules for myself. I'm going to pass them along in the hopes that it will help someone who has questions about social networking.

Agents and editors WILL take you on if you don't A) blog B) tweet or C) Facebook. They may ask you to do something, but they're looking for great stories, not the best blog on the planet. (Though, in my personal opinion, I think having a good blog/website is beneficial. It won't secure an agent or a book deal--only good writing/storytelling can do that--but I think it's beneficial on the marketing/publicity side of publishing.)

Self-promotion. It's like a beast with fifteen heads, and when you chop one off, two more grow back. My policy? If I say something on my blog/Facebook/twitter about POSSESSION, I have to talk about/promote another book and/or another author before I can say anything else about my book.

I cannot take credit for this. I stole this policy from Lisa and Laura Roecker, who are fexcellent marketers. (See what I did there? Ha!)

Twitter. Everyone likes to say stuff about themselves. Humans are pretty self-centered. To avoid what I believe is a pitfall on Twitter about talking about ourselves/our books too much, I've adopted a tweeting policy. When someone does something amazing for me, I tweet about how amazing they are.

If I say something about what's going on in my life, I have to scroll through my twitter feed and @-message three other people who've said something about theirs. This creates a new conversation between me and them, and only takes me a few minutes. Then I don't feel like I'm hogging the twitter feed.

These are not the be-all, end-all rules of social networking. In fact, they're only "rules" in Elana-land. But I think it gets very tiresome to read someone's blog where ALL they do is promote their book. Same with the twitter feed. I mean, how many of you had no idea I have a book coming out?

So yeah. Some social networking rules that hopefully make self-promotion non-annoying.

What do you think? What annoys you re: social networking? What do you wish more authors would do? What do you wish they'd STOP doing? Lay it on me.

Self-promotion is such a fine line, sometimes I think it's hard for authors to know which side they're on.

CLARITY by Kim Harrington

Dude, you guys, did you know I love a spicy main character? Someone with flair and attitude and smarts? Someone who's not afraid of who she is, but also terrified of letting other people know who she is?

If you didn't know that, now you do. Also, I found all these amazing qualities in an unforgettable character, Clare Fern from Kim Harrington's CLARITY.

So if you like a spicy MC, with a hard edge but a soft side, you'll love CLARITY.

Did you also know that I have a special place in my heart for the paranormal? You know like reading minds and controlling fire and hey, seeing visions?

Well, now you do. And this extra dash of paranormal specialness is prevalent in CLARITY. Clare can see secrets when she touches objects. It's a gift. And a curse. But mostly Clare uses it to help her solve a murder.

And holy smoking guns, Batman! Who doesn't love a good paranormal, spicy-character, murder mystery??

Um, CLARITY has all that and more. Great writing. A fast pace. A tight plot. Get it, read it, love it. You won't be disappointed.

What do you love in characters and/or books?

Join The Bookanista Book Club at The Reading Room where you can check out all the books we're buzzing about!

Check out what the other Bookanistas are up to this week!

• LiLa Roecker raves over The Rendering
• Shannon Messenger loves 13 Reasons Why - with a signed book giveaway!
• Scott Tracey is amazed by The Iron Thorn
• Kirsten Hubbard raves over these March releases
• Michelle Hodkin introduces some marvelous March books
• Myra McEntire invites Kim Harrington into the fort
• Beth Revis is mad for Matched
• Carolina Valdez Miller delights in Delirium
• Jessi Kirby adores Across the Universe
• Megan Miranda peers into Sean Griswold's Head
• Bethany Wiggins marvels at Matched
• Shana Silver is a super stop on The Liar Society blog tour
• Gretchen McNeil celebrates The Liar Society
• Carrie Harris buzzes about Blessed
• Rosemary Clement-Moore falls for Falling Under
• Katie Anderson shows cover love for Possess
• Matt Blackstone is ecstatic over Edges
• Stasia Ward Kehoe is wild for What Happened to Goodbye

Stubborn or Stupid?

Okay, so today, I invited Gretchen McNeil to take over the blog. I wanted to post on perseverance, but you've all heard (and are bored by) my story. So welcome Gretchen!

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I'm Irish, so this question comes up frequently. In my personal life ("But mom, a street magician can totally make a decent living!"), in my choice of careers ("Okay, so I'm making the move from opera singer to circus clown. Awesome, right?") my existence has been a series of questionable choices.

Writing was really just par for the course.

(Both of those quotes were from real conversations I had with my mom, by the way. Bless her.)

Stubborn or stupid. When you write your first novel, there's an element of each that comes into play. I was stupid because I literally had no idea what I was getting into - both in terms of the actual technique of writing and the business of getting published. I was stubborn because in the face of insurmountable odds, I kept at it.

I wrote a novel. My first. And let me be frank: it sucked donkey balls. No joke. I pull it out sometimes just to remind myself how far I've come. I queried 137 agents with that manuscript and surprise, surprise - no takers. SHOCKING.

On the upside, I learned how to write. It's a craft (as much as I loathe myself for saying that) and you have to learn not only the tricks and pitfalls of the trade, but how you as an individual writer work. I learned how to write, and when I finished my next manuscript, I believed I had something special on my hands.

So did some other people. I had four offers of representation within two weeks.

Cue Beethoven's 9th Symphony complete with fireworks. I've arrived! This is it! I'm going to sell this book at auction and two years from now I'll be accepting the Oscar for the screenplay I adapted FROM MY OWN NOVEL!!!!

No joke, I half composed the acceptance speech in my head.

But things don't always happen the way we think they will. That manuscript didn't sell. It languished in submission land with a few close calls and a lot of passes.

Cue Chopin's Funeral March and crack open a bottle of wine, por favor.

It was a tough time. On the one hand I had an agent who really believed in me. On the other, I was convinced I'd never have a good idea again and would never be able to finish another manuscript and OH MY GOD WHY DON'T I JUST GIVE UP NOW AND SAVE MYSELF THE MISERY!

My inner monologues are so dramatic sometimes.

Stubborn or stupid. I refused to give up. Through fits and starts I wrote another manuscript. Better. Faster. Stronger. I loved it. My agent loved it.

An editor loved it.

POSSESS was born from a tough time. I had gone from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows and was half-convinced I'd never write anything ever again. But I'm stubborn. And a little bit stupid. I absolutely refused to give up, and trust me, if POSSESS hadn't sold I'd have been looking at some major life reevaluation. But because I refused to give up, here I am with a book coming out in just a few months. It wasn't the book I thought I'd publish first, but I'm still here.

Stubborn and stupid. And loving every minute.

Gretchen McNeil writes. YA mostly and she's repped by Ginger Clark of Curtis Brown. Her debut YA novel POSSESS will be published by Balzer + Bray for HarperCollins, August 23, 2011. She's a former coloratura soprano, the voice of Mary on G4's Code Monkeys and she currently sings with the LA-based circus troupe Cirque Berzerk. She's a founding member of vlog group the YARebels where she can be seen as "Monday" and an active member of The Enchanted Inkpot, a group blog of YA and middle grade fantasy writers.

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I won't lie, I'm sort of a fangirl for Gretchen. Be sure to follow her blog!

And are you stubborn or stupid? Wait. Don't answer that... Or do...

Warning: I Am A Random Hugger

If there's one thing I've learned about myself over the past two weeks, it's that I'm a random hugger. When I'm in a group of people, it's the natural thing to do. When someone comes up to me and says something nice, I get all grateful inside. And what better way to say "Thank you" than hugging?

Um, there isn't a better way. Just sayin'.

So I thought I'd throw this warning out there. I know some of you have moved "Meet Elana" to the bottom of your list now.

I also wanted to give you a couple of highlights from the ANWA conference I just attended. I'm not really sure they're highlights, but maybe some facts and some tips? Yeah, sure, let's go with that.

1. Think before you speak. Not only did I make a fool of myself several times, I'm still thinking of the lame things I said.

2. Agents, editors, and authors are all people. True fact.

3. Barnes & Noble is "drastically changing" how they do business. I sat in on a class by one of their community relations managers and it was fascinating.

4. Writing dialog is really hard.

5. We should be writing what we love, no matter what the current trend is.

6. Common mistake children's authors make: trying to preach/teach a lesson with their books. Also, the whole mustache-twirling villain? Another mistake.

7. Imperfect rhyme in picture books is, well, imperfect. Fix it.

8. You can take what you know emotionally and translate it into your novel.

9. No matter how you get published, you'll have to do some of your own publicity and marketing.

10. I am a random hugger.

What have you learned about yourself recently?

Things I Like

1. This cover. The colors are brilliant. The cracks. The glass as a fence--and you know how I feel about fences...

2. And this cover. The blue and the tree limbs... GORGEOUS yet creepy at the same time.

3. Email. Good thing, because between WriteOnCon and the Bookanistas and planning a trip to NYC in SIX WEEKS, and my inbox is NEVER EMPTY.

4. People. I spent last weekend, and the weekend before that, presenting at symposiums and conferences. It is fabulous to be surrounded by writers, by those seeking to become better writers, by those who inspire.

5. Sleep. I haven't gotten nearly enough, and I'm determined to get a nap today.

What do you like right now?

Set the Alarm! The Liar Society Fans Know No Bounds

Okay, I'll admit it. I'm a little weepy over this one. This has been an awesome week.



And I've been teasing you with a contest all week. Well, here's the deets:
1. We'll be giving away 10 (TEN) signed copies of THE LIAR SOCIETY next week. Contest starts Monday, February 28 and goes through Friday, March 4.

2. There are two ways to enter to win: Twitter or blog.

3. Twitter. Use the hashtag #liarsociety and tweet about the book every day next week. We'll be trolling the twitterverse 24/7 (who needs to sleep when you've got THE LIAR SOCIETY??) and will announce a winner each night.

If you pink-hair your twitter profile pic, you'll get an extra entry each day. #PhotoshopFTW





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4. Blog. Take this button (copy the code in that box up there! Easy!) and put it on your blog. At the top, please. Then fill out the form (linked or below). You've just entered! Blog winners will be announced on Monday, March 7.



Questions? Let me know in the comments. I'm out of town this weekend, so I'll be delayed in getting back to you, but I will!

• The one I know you'll have: This is a US only contest. Sorry. :( 
• Another one: There will be two winners each day, but all the blog winners will be announced together on the 7th. Twitter winners, watch the #liarsociety hashtag!
• Finally: Your copy of THE LIAR SOCIETY will be signed!

Have a great weekend!

Suzanne Young = "Working So Hard" + Guestanista review of THE LIAR SOCIETY

I can't stop laughing at this! My favorite? The jogging scene. You'll see why...



And seriously, you only have a couple more days to get yourself pinked up and ready for this ultra-amazing contest we've got brewing...

Also, I'm turning over my blog to a real, live young adult! Meet Fabiana Fonseca, daughter of Christine Fonseca for a GUESTANISTA review! Fabi's here to give us her take on THE LIAR SOCIETY by Lisa and Laura Roecker.

Take it away, Fabi!

Something Awesome about the book:
I really loved the mystery in THE LIAR SOCIETY. It kept me engaged in the book and reading – always a good thing. In fact, I really liked the whole premise of the book. The pacing kept me turning the pages, and the characters were well developed. I really like Kate and how she sort of found herself in the book. She figured out who she was and found her own strength as the storyline developed. I liked that a lot.

Questions I still want answered:
This was definitely one of those books that leaves questions. I mean, dude - who threw the rock??? I never saw the answer to that. I am assuming it is a series – at least, it had better be!!! There just has to be more.

Overall Recommendation:
I LOVED THE LIAR SOCIETY! I can’t wait to read more about Kate! (And BTW, I’ve totally been talking up this book to my friends). Great job Lisa and Laura. I am already planning on reading anything else you guys decide to write.

Fabiana is a bookworm, a math geek, and closet fashionista. She spends her time divided between music, mock trial, sports, designing, and reading. Yep, she has a busy busy life!

Check out what the other Bookanistas are up to!
LiLa Roecker is blown away by A Touch Mortal
Shannon Messenger can’t lie about her love for The Liar Society
Shelli Johannes-Wells burns for AngelFire
Scott Tracey is more than a touch impressed with A Touch Mortal
Myra McEntire is A Touch Mortal this week
Beth Revis tells the truth about The Liar Society
Christine Fonseca is leveled by Leverage
Carolina Valdez Miller has tons to say about One
Jessi Kirby soars for Across the Universe
Jen Hayley adores The Liar Society
Shana Silver can’t imagine you not reading Imaginary Girls
Katie Anderson wants to be Like Mandarin
Matt Blackstone loves The Hate List
Stasia Ward Kehoe falls head over heels for Fall for Anything
Sarah Frances Hardy sings her praises for Mockingbird
Veronica Rossi thinks Unearthly is otherworldly
Michelle Hodkin champions A Dog's Way Home

And hey! Click here to join The Bookanista Book Club at The Reading Room where you can check out all the books we're buzzing about!

One more thing: The writing community mourns the loss of one of its own, LK Madigan. Her agent, Jennifer Laughran, says it best.

*hugs*