(Saundra Mitchell is by far one of my favourite authors, as well as one of the most pleasant/friendliest/talented ones I’ve met since becoming a book blogger, so it was my honor for her to kick off her 30 Days of Summer blog tour on BookNerds! If you love ghost stories, then Shadowed Summer is definitely a book you should check out!)

I feel so honored to kick off my 30 Days of Summer Guest Blog tour here on BookNerds! This blog has such a special place in my heart! Last year, I was a brand new author, with my very first book. I worried that no one would read it- that no one would like it.

And then Anna posted an amazing review for it here. She said SHADOWED SUMMER was part of the reason she started this blog, and I couldn’t be more humbled by that. Thank you so much, Anna!

And to get things started, I’d like to share one of my family’s true ghost stories. Though my family isn’t quite as haunted as Iris’ is in SHADOWED SUMMER, we’ve still got some haunts of our own.

None of them ever led me to discover a tragic family secret; they didn’t even show me a secret passage or share a hint of the other side.

But they were real, and they were the start of my lifelong fascination with the not-quite-departed. A few months before I was born, my grandmother- known to drink a bit too much for most of her life- passed out in her bed after a long day.

At exactly 3:33am she woke up. At first, she thought she’d left the TV on, but when she put on her glasses, she didn’t see static on the set- she saw her parents.

Her dead parents.

Twenty years before cable TV, twenty years before VCRs- grandma’s parents appeared on her tv screen. Her mother told her that she had to stop drinking before her first grandchild (me!) was born- and by the way, that grandchild would be a girl.

My grandmother quit drinking that day, and never had a drop the rest of her life. She also lorded it over my mom that *she* knew that I’d be a girl before everyone else.

And yes, I totally stole her ghost and put it in SHADOWED SUMMER as one of the family examples. My haunted legacy began with apparitions- it only seemed right to memorialize them, so they could continue to haunt my family long after I’m gone.

I’ll be telling two more of my personal ghost stories later this month. Join me on June 16th in Sonia Gensler’s blog- I’ll introduce you to The Dark Lady, and to The Songbird.

SHADOWED SUMMER
by Saundra Mitchell
In paperback June 8, 2010
www.shadowedsummer.com

Check out the rest of the stops on the 30 Days of Summer Blog tour after the cut!

Continue Reading…

Stranded by J.T. Dutton

My best friend, Katy, says a person with a sparkly two-part name like Kelly Louise should be guaranteed a little glamour and excitement and not be forced to move back to Mom’s middle-of-nowhere hometown—now the center of a media frenzy since a farmer found an infant in his cornfield. (It just slipped from some mystery mother’s body without anyone noticing.)

Bizzaro.

But Baby Grace shadows every hair flip, every wink, and is keeping me from losing my virginity, despite my dynamite new boots. Even Katy doesn’t have any more good advice. The one boy around who rates anywhere near acceptable on the Maximum Man Scale only has eyes for my cousin, Natalie, who only has eyes for Jesus.

But Natalie has a secret.

Everyone is so busy burying the truth about Baby Grace, they can’t see who they’re burying alive.

Welcome to Heaven, Iowa.

When I heard that Nancy Werlin would be coming out with another book I was immediately excited. After reading Impossible, I fell in love with her writing and her ability to tell a story so realistically (most of the time). Extraordinary sounds interesting, not to mention the cover (just as with Impossible) is stunning.

Extraordinary by Nancy Werlin

Phoebe, a member of the wealthy Rothschilds family, befriends Mallory, an awkward new girl in school, and the two become as close as sisters, but Phoebe does not know that Mallory is a faerie, sent to the human world to trap the ordinary human girl into fulfilling a promise made by her ancestor Mayer to the queen of the faeries.

Release Date: September 7th 2010 (Dial Books for Young Readers – Penguin)

Starting today, and for the next three days, I believe – there will be an auction on Do the Write Thing for Nashville from me for a complete blog makeover/design! This is meant for authors, bloggers, and anyone who might need a design for their site or a makeover! If you’re interested PLEASE head on over to the Do the Write Thing for Nashville site & bid! This is $1500 value and for SUCH a good cause! Please help if you can! (If you’re NOT interested there are a TON more auctions on the site that I’m sure you’ll be interested in!)

Summary:

When someone leaves three mystery flowers outside her dorm door, Laurel thinks that maybe the Avondale School isn’t so awful after all — until her own body starts to freak out. In the middle of her English presentation on the Victorian Language of Flowers, strange words pop into her head, and her body seems to tingle and hum. Impulsively, Laurel gives the love bouquet she made to demonstrate the language to her spinster English teacher. When that teacher unexpectedly and immediately finds romance, Laurel suspects that something — something magical — is up. With her new friend, Kate, she sets out to discover the origins and breadth of her powers by experimenting on herself and others. But she can’t seem to find any living experts in the field of flower powers to guide her. And her bouquets don’t always do her bidding, especially when it comes to her own crush, Justin. Rumors about Laurel and her flowers fly across campus, and she’s soon besieged by requests from girls — both friends and enemies — who want their lives magically transformed — just in time for prom.

Anna’s Thoughts:

I’m really not sure what’s going on with the Tenners, but the undeniable amount of unique ideas from this group is starting to scare me. Between The Body Finder, The Iron King and now Forget-Her-Nots I think I’m going to have to buy more Tenner books solely for the fact of the ideas being produced by them!

The Languages of Flowers is apparently nothing even remotely new, but I for one, had never heard of it. I am, though, now obsessed with the meanings behind flowers. I had known simple things like red roses are for love, and white are for new beginnings or remembrance, but I had no idea that every flower had a meaning, which make Forget-Her-Nots that much more fun to read.

As for the book itself, I loved it! The plot, obviously was incredibly original, and the characters were extremely real. I liked the message sent through some parts of the book that even too much of a good thing can be bad, and that sometimes you should be careful what you wish for. I also enjoyed the somewhat unending amounts of ways you can mispronounce ‘tussie-mussie’. The only thing I really didn’t enjoy about the plot was the way that Laurel seemed to fall head over heals for one of the boys at Avondale’s brother school. Other than some mild interaction with the two characters Laurel really had no basis on the feelings she felt, or more so how strongly she felt. It’s normal to like someone (obviously) but the amount that she liked him with very little reason worried me a bit.

Laurel, was however (for those of us who got to know her), very likable even when she was being unlikable. She had a quality about her that always made me feel bad for her or want her to be happy, even when she was the one causing her misery. I also loved her cousin Rose, who although a bit on the skeptical side, stayed strong with her beliefs through out the entire book. I find that rarely happens in books where someone is faced with something they didn’t think possible, they usually end up folding into it instead of holding strong. She supported Laurel but didn’t completely change her beliefs and ideas to do so.

All in all it was a very cute and light read about friendship, love, and the magic of something so simple and natural that it’s almost unbelievable, but at the same time completely believable. The plot (again) was completely unique, the characters played their roles well and while I wish there was a little more basis on the relationship level, there really is no reason not to love Forget-Her-Nots. It’s an absolutely stunning debut!

When I was a kid, and teenager, I wasn’t very big (in terms of weight) but I was bigger than the people I hung out with. That led to years of torment. It led to me being made fun of, pushed down stairs, people taking my clothes and shoes and sticking them in toilets during gym. (To this day, no one has ever asked me why I stopped dressing out for gym in 6th grade.) It led to the kids that lived around me, those that I called ‘friends’ making up words that got me chased and beat up all for something I didn’t say. It also got those same ‘friends’ to beat me up themselves, and shove varies types of fruits in my face – including a grapefruit which blinded me for an hour. I got chased around blocks, and houses, and I got eggs shoved in my face, in my hair, and I even had a photo of up my nightgown taken once while I was at a sleepover.

I didn’t care, these people were my friends, and no one is perfect. That’s what I thought.

It wasn’t until 8th grade when someone was picking on me that I finally stood up for myself. When I finally said SOMETHING. We were sitting in Science and the boy who came in to pick up our attendance did, just like he did everyday since the beginning of the year – and the second he left, another boy in class would start making fun of me for liking him – just like HE did everyday since the beginning of the year. The comments usually included something about my ‘thunder thighs’ or how I was dreaming, or how could I possibly think he would ever be interested in someone like me? I picked up the chair I was sitting in, and threw it at his head. It didn’t hit him, but he never said another thing to me. I started to withdraw myself, I stopped talking to people who made fun of me, and I stopped trying to be friends with anyone. I was friends with people who came to ME, who wanted to be MY friend.

There are a lot of people standing up against bullying, but I think more should be. Everyone should be. This isn’t something new. It didn’t start with Phoebe Price, but it CAN end with her. Authors like Carrie Jones, and Saundra Mitchell are writing their stories about how they almost gave in to the tormenting of others, and how in some cases they even did. I think though, there is a lesson in these stories, as well as my own that we really need to teach kids too. That is: Don’t be afraid to tell. Don’t be afraid to scream, and yell, or cry. Don’t be afraid to tell every single person you find until you find someone who cares enough to scream on your behalf. Kids and teenagers are facing this problem everyday; and like Phoebe did, they’re facing it alone because they’re scared. I was scared. If you asked my parents about ANY of the things I mentioned before, they wouldn’t know, because I didn’t want to disappoint them. I however have always been a stubborn person and like HELL I was going to let anyone win in making me feel like I was wrong, or a disappointment, or that I didn’t belong. If I wasn’t meant to be here, I’d find somewhere I was meant to be, and if I couldn’t I would carve out my own place.

Along with teaching adults to be more aware, I think we need to teach kids to be more fearless. To stand up for themselves. Not necessarily to save themselves but to believe that NO one should have to face these types of things, and certainly not alone. If you see someone upset, ask them why, ask them if you can help. If you see someone being bullied, say something! DO something! Tell a teacher, tell the principle, tell your parents, tell someone else’s parents – if they won’t listen tell the media. Talk to the newspaper, tell the school newspaper. Make a big deal about it because it IS a big deal. No one should have to deal with the things I dealt with, that Saundra or Carrie dealt with – or that Phoebe and thousands of other kids deal with. Life is worth so much more and at no time should anyone be able to make you feel like yours isn’t worth anything.

But it’s not going to get any better until we DO something about it. Until we stand up and fight. Until we show the world that we will no longer accept this. That WE will not be treated like this and like HELL we’re going to allow our kids, our grand-kids, our sisters, brothers, neighbors and friends to be treated like this.

Carrie Jones has made a group on Facebook for this sole purpose (Young Adult Authors Against Bullying – ANYONE is free to join), it’s not changing the world, not yet. But it’s a start, and every good thing has to start somewhere. And anything worth fighting for, is never easy. Go join, and stand up for yourself, or your kids, or your grand-kids – make sure you’re heard, and teach others how to make sure their voices are heard as well!