Holy Bookshelves, Batman! And news both good and bad.

When my mother announced that we would finally finish unpacking and rearranging the room my sister and I share, O Fortuna immediately got stuck in my head and didn't leave for about four hours (at which point I woke up in an embarrassing puddle of drool on the living room recliner with no distinct memories of how I got there). However, it all turned out for the best in the end, especially because I got a new bookshelf! The huge kind that has to be bolted to the wall! With shelves you can rearrange and more space than even I could possibly fill! (Which means I'll be in the market for a new one in about two weeks.) Anyway, with apologies for the crappy quality of my webcam's snapshot feature, I give you...Maggie's actual bookshelf.

Yes, this is total book lover S-M-you-know-what-T, and yes, I am unashamed. I may take up vlogging again now that I have a background this freaking awesome. (For all you creepy Edward Cullen types out there who'd like to know where I sleep, my daybed from which I do most of my blogging/vlogging is directly opposite the shelf, meaning I get to wake up to this every morning. BE JEALOUS.)

By the way, I have now reached 100 followers, which is really, really exciting. Thanks, guys! I'd do a giveaway to celebrate, but unfortunately I'm flat-friggin'-broke, as friggin' usual. I will be drawing and announcing the winner of my giveaway of Lockdown and Solitary by Alexander Gordon Smith tomorrow, however, and there's only three entries at the moment so your odds are pretty good. Go forth and enter, blog peeps.

And in some very serious news that makes me want to cry every time I think about it, author L.K. Madigan died yesterday. While I never met her and now won't ever get the chance to, I'm in awe of what she did with the time she had. She wrote Flash Burnout, which I finished last week and made me snort milk out of my nose and gasp and cry in the same sitting and is one of the best YAs I've read, ever. She wrote The Mermaid's Mirror, which I haven't read yet but have repeatedly heard is incredible. She united the blogosphere and Twitterverse with her devastating blog post in January after having been a funny and inspiring presence on both for at least as long as I've been doing this. I've been dazed ever since I heard the news last night. I literally had been re-reading my favorite parts of Flash Burnout right before I sat down to Twitter and her fellow 2009 Debutantes' heartbreaking RIP messages. I wish I'd had the chance to tell her how happy her book made me; better yet, I wish there had been some miracle cure and she could still be around writing right now. But true to the YA spirit, good stories have bittersweet endings. Lisa, you will be very, very missed.

Interview: Cheryl Rainfield, author of Scars

Cheryl Rainfield is the author of Scars, a book currently being challenged in Boone County, Kentucky that I reviewed earlier today. Cheryl was kind enough to answer a few questions of mine that I'd sent before the book challenge (which you can read about on her blog here), and in light of that event I think it's even more important that her answers get out there. Speak Loudly!

The thing that struck me about Scars was how passionate it was.  You really put your heart and soul into your writing, which was refreshing and intense for the reader!  How intense has the experience of writing and publishing Scars been for you?

It was very intense. I put a lot of my heart, my soul, and pieces of my experience into Scars. It was hard to face repeated rejections for so many years--especially in the last few years when I got so many near misses; the despair was sometimes overwhelming. Publishing Scars has been full of joy, validation, and fulfillment, as well as some stress. It's a lot of work, even after the book is published--book promotion, keeping up an author presence, networking--and for introverts like me, as well as those of us with abuse or trauma histories, some aspects of having to be public can be especially draining or triggering. But I wouldn't trade it for anything! I love having Scars out there, reaching people, love hearing from so many readers.

Something else I really enjoyed was Kendra's voice.  I think all teenagers, even if their experiences haven't been nearly as traumatic, would be able to relate to her self-discovery and journey towards finding constructive ways to deal with pain.  What did you have to do to tap into the teenage experience?

I'm glad you enjoyed Kendra's voice; thank you! I think I still have so much kid in me--and  I don't really feel like an adult, or the age my body is (I never have)--that all I had to do was tap into my own voice, fears, emotions, and experiences. I worry that sometimes my dialogue or internal thoughts may sound too old or stilted--I felt SO old as a child and teen, and I didn't learn colloquial language until many years after leaving home. But I know there are many mature teens out there--teens who've had to grow up too fast--so perhaps my voice will echo theirs.

I thought that the cover of Scars was fantastic - it really worked with the story.  Could you share what the cover design process was like for you?

I mentioned to my publisher that I had a professional photo of my scarred arm and wondered if they'd be willing to look at it. They were--and I'm so grateful! I think it works really well; it tells readers right away what the book is about, without being sensationalist.

What has been the most surprising thing about being a published author so far?  Has it changed how you write?

The most surprising thing for me has been amount of time it takes to do various forms of book promotion, including keeping author visibility and being a part of reading and writing communities--every day. It takes up so much more time and energy than I'd realized it would, digging into what I thought of as my writing time. But then I also care very much about my books continuing to reach people, and not just disappearing under the flood of all the other books out there--so it's important to me to both do ongoing book promotion and to write (and edit). I am working on trying to balance the two.

If you could go back in time, what advice would you give your teen self?

To believe in myself, to love myself, and to find as much compassion for myself as I could, and to keep trying to get safe. To not ever give up on my dreams, that they would come. And to know that I was never to blame for any of the abuse that happened--and that I am lovable. To take in all the good that other people can see in me, and to try not to block it so much the way I was trained to do.

What advice would you give teens in situations like Kendra's?  What about teens who want to write?

For teens in abusive situations, or in deep emotional pain, or queer and alone: To find someone--or many someones--who are safe to talk to. To get out the emotion in safe ways, to have real compassion and love for yourself, the way you would a friend. To know that you don't deserve to be hurt--by anyone--not even by yourself.

For teens wanting to write: To hold on to your dream. To read as much as you possibly can--you'll learn from it all, as well as feed your soul, your well of creativity. To join a critique group--online or in person--to get feedback to help make your work better. To read books on writing technique, or take classes, or both, to keep on getting better. I still do all of that myself.
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Thank you so much, Cheryl, and all the best to you while Scars is being challenged. Hopefully the library will realize how inspiring this book has been to so many teens, myself included! You can find out more about Scars on Cheryl's website.

Review: Scars

Scars by Cheryl Rainfield
Find it at a local indie!

• Why I read it: Gritty, self-harm, LGBTQ, author's Twitter presence
• Disclosure: Received a signed copy in a contest. Thanks!

Kendra, fifteen, hasn't felt safe since she began to recall devastating memories of childhood sexual abuse, especially because she still can't remember the most important detail-- her abuser's identity. Frightened, Kendra believes someone is always watching and following her, leaving menacing messages only she understands. If she lets her guard down even for a minute, it could cost Kendra her life. To relieve the pressure, Kendra cuts; aside from her brilliantly expressive artwork, it's her only way of coping. Since her own mother is too self-absorbed to hear her cries for help, Kendra finds support in others instead: from her therapist and her art teacher, from Sandy, the close family friend who encourages her artwork, and from Meghan, the classmate who's becoming a friend and maybe more. But the truth about Kendra's abuse is just waiting to explode, with startling unforeseen consequences. Scars is the unforgettable story of one girl's frightening path to the truth.

As I read this book over Christmas Eve surrounded by my family that I adore, it was easy for my initial impression to be hokeyness. From Kendra's initial visit to the therapist, Scars feels too harrowing to be true. And then you read author Cheryl Rainfield's About Me page, and realize that she wrote this book from firsthand experience. Suddenly, I was riveted.

While it's not written in verse form, this book has the gritty feeling of an Ellen Hopkins novel, of a dark world seething just below the surface of the New York City glamour or the comforting middle class suburbia that provide the backdrop for most YA novels. Instead of entertainingly dysfunctional parents or loving, supportive ones, we have ones that make you grit your teeth. And high school becomes a dystopia to rival The Hunger Games. I don't usually "see" novels in my head, something that annoys my very visual sister to no end, but this one was crystal clear in the shadowy grays and grainy sepias of action/horror movies.

At the same time, it's kind of beautiful. Watching Kendra grow into herself, find people who cared about her, and especially connect with her art is something I think every teen should be able to connect to - not just teens who have been abused. Kendra's romance with Meghan was especially unusual and well-done. Perhaps unlike Ellen Hopkins, Rainfield shows us that with the dark there is also light.

I still had some problems with the writing - a few things wrapped up too conveniently, there were a few stock characters to be found in almost every "issue" novel - but they feel irrelevant in a book that's ultimately so brave, heartbreaking, and fresh. Four out of five stars.

A quick note: Scars is currently being challenged at Boone County Public Library in Kentucky. You can read Cheryl's post about it here - please help protect another book that's shown so many teenagers that they're not alone and Speak Loudly!

Now Listening: "Pictures of You" by The Cure

Review: Across the Universe

Across the Universe by Beth Revis
Find it at a local indie!

• Why I read it: Deep space, hard sci-fi, Debut Author Challenge, hype
• Disclosure: Purchased a copy for my Nook.

A love out of time. A spaceship built of secrets and murder. Seventeen-year-old Amy joins her parents as frozen cargo aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed and expects to awaken on a new planet, three hundred years in the future. Never could she have known that her frozen slumber would come to an end fifty years too soon and that she would be thrust into the brave new world of a spaceship that lives by its own rules.
Amy quickly realizes that her awakening was no mere computer malfunction. Someone-one of the few thousand inhabitants of the spaceship-tried to kill her. And if Amy doesn't do something soon, her parents will be next.
Now Amy must race to unlock Godspeed's hidden secrets. But out of her list of murder suspects, there's only one who matters: Elder, the future leader of the ship and the love she could never have seen coming.

If you haven't figured out that I'm a pretty big sci-fi and horror fan by now, then you're probably new around here. To put the obsession in perspective, Alien is my favorite movie of all time (followed closely by Blade Runner, WALL-E, everything Alfred Hitchcock has ever done, and Almost Famous, which has nothing to do with sci-fi or horror but is awesome anyway). Octavia Butler and Margaret Atwood are my favorite writers. And whenever I'm not blogging, you can probably find me writing sci-fi and horror. Heck, I've even been added to the ISFDb (sort of like IMDb but for science fiction) for a poem I wrote back in 2009, which makes my freaking day every time I think about it. So when I found out that one of the most anticipated novels of 2011 was a story about a bunch of people in the middle of space starting to be picked off one by one, I first sat down for my zillionth viewing of Alien, and then had a serious squee moment. It was actually what motivated me to join the Debut Author Challenge in the first place.

So I'm sure you'll understand if this review sounds a little bitter, because I was seriously disappointed.

I could have forgiven writing that wasn't quite up to par - it's a debut novel, after all. But what got my goat was the failure to deliver on that premise that sold me the book in in the first place. Instead of a science fiction novel with romance, which is what I was expecting, we got a romance novel with pseudo-science. I have nothing against romance novels or those who read them - done well, they're just as difficult to write as any other genre. The problem was, and I feel like a jerk writing this, I didn't even feel the romance part was done well. Take the idea of the Season, for example; a hormonally induced free-for-all in which everybody has sex with everybody as much as possible, out in the open, and there's lots of "digging hips" and "glazed eyes" and other cringe-worthy descriptions. In hard sci-fi done well, it'd be a commentary on teen hormones or something. Here it's unbelievably awkward. And if Elder had been more fleshed out, I would have totally gotten him staring at Amy's boobs and fantasizing about his own little Season and blah blah blah - it's what teenagers do, right? But because he seemed more like a plot device than a character, I just wasn't buying it. And the constant discussion of her pale skin and red hair made me feel like this was some sort of white supremacy thing, which I know the author didn't intend and again feel like a jerk writing, but still. (Maze Runner was way guilty of the "alabaster skin" thing, too.) So, for me at least, the swoon was pretty much dead.

This book did start to look up towards the end, with better writing and Amy finally getting over herself a tiny bit, and I also appreciated Revis's decision to not end on a cliffhanger. (Because only Suzanne Collins is allowed to torture me.) Harley tugged on my heartstrings, too, and I liked the idea of institutionalizing artists. Still, it's not enough to convince me to spend any more time with this series. The science here was a convenient backdrop rather than center stage, and that left me feeling cheated. And cheated is not something I take kindly to. I really hate writing negative reviews, especially for debuts, but I'm going to be honest here and say...two and a half out of five stars.

Quick sidebar: I've heard very mixed things about the cover, and while it's pretty terrible in person - I found it at my bookstore, and it looks like it was printed on cheap paper - I really have no opinion on the design, which is rare for me. Feel like sounding off in the comments?

Currently Listening: "Dark Side of the Moon" by Pink Floyd

In My Mailbox/Read This Week

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme about books borrowed, bought, or otherwise (legally) received graciously hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren. Thanks, Kristi! This week I had a pretty fantastic mailbox:

The Reinvention of Edison Thomas by Jacqueline Houtman.

Science geek Eddy Thomas can invent useful devices to do anything, except solve his bully problem. Eddy Thomas can read a college physics book, but he can’t read the emotions on the faces of his classmates at Drayton Middle School. He can spend hours tinkering with an invention, but he can’t stand more than a few minutes in a noisy crowd, like the crowd at the science fair, which Eddy fails to win. When the local school crossing guard is laid off, Eddy is haunted by thoughts of the potentially disastrous consequences and invents a traffic-calming device, using parts he has scavenged from discarded machines. Eddy also discovers new friends, who appreciate his abilities and respect his unique view of the world. By trusting his real friends, Eddy uses his talents to help others and rethinks his purely mechanical definition of success.

I received this in a contest from Jacqueline's blog, Sciency Fiction. While I usually don't review middle grade fiction, I'm going to read this with my very science-crazy younger siblings and let them do a special guest review - stay tuned! (Jacqueline also included some fantastic They Might Be Giants swag, which made my geeky day. Thanks!)

Flash Burnout by L.K. Madigan

Click.
Telephoto lens. Zoom. In a shutter release millisecond, Blake’s world turns upside down. The nameless woman with the snake tattoo is not just another assignment. “That’s my mom!” gasps Marissa.
Click.
Saturated self-portrait: Blake, nice guy, class clown, always trying to get a laugh, not sure where to focus.
Click.
Contrast. Shannon, Blake’s GF. Total. Babe. Marissa, just a friend and fellow photographer. Shannon loves him; Marissa needs him. How is he supposed to frame them both in one shot?
Click.
Chiaroscuro. Lightdark. Marissa again, overexposed. Crash and burn.
Talk about negative space.
Click.

I received this as part of the 2009 Debutantes' L.K. Madigan's Feast of Awesome giveaway - thanks! I can't wait to read this and support Lisa any way I can.

What did you get in your mailbox this week? Please leave your titles and links (with a thoughtful comment) below!

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Read This Week

Beautiful Darkness by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

The Sushi Economy by Sasha Issenberg