Girlfriend's Cyber Circuit: STARRING MELISSA WALKER!!

I am beyond excited to read Melissa’s new book, SMALL TOWN SINNERS! And so glad she stopped by to chat.

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Small Town Sinners is the story of Lacey Anne, daughter of the pastor and perennial good girl, who is eligible for a lead role in the season’s Hell House production—a role she’s been coveting for years. But when Ty moves to town as casting begins, a new perspective is added to Lacey Anne’s world and she starts to see her tight-knit, Evangelical community in a different light. With the help of her two best friends Starla Joy and Dean, and her potential first love Ty, Lacey Anne begins exploring her own thoughts and feelings about her religion, her community, and her place within both. While this novel deals with provocative issues like religion, teen pregnancy and underage drinking, it is not an “issue” book; the topics are masterfully interwoven into this story of friendship and family.

Early readers agree:

“Small Town Sinners shines a light on the fascinating world of the teenage Hell House. Sit back and let Melissa Walker be your guide. She writes without a shred of judgment and plenty of heart.” —Dana Reinhardt, author of A Brief Chapter of My Impossible Life

“Walker is sympathetic and respectful of her characters’ faith, while putting on display the shocking extremist scare tactics that make Hell Houses, well, hellish.” —Donna Freitas, author of This Gorgeous Game and The Possibilities of Sainthood.

“A non-judgmental, nuanced, fascinating look at the teenage religious right… Walker writes an outstanding contemporary novel with a cast of characters who, far from being portrayed as hateful zealots, are relatable for readers of all faiths. The extremism of Hell House is tempered by the perfectly understandable attitudes and intentions of Lacey Anne, who struggles with what it means to grow up, to question and to think for herself.” –Romantic Times

“Both tender and provocative… Walker creates an astutely balanced portrait of a conservative congregation’s in-your-face response to perennial issues of domestic abuse, teen pregnancy, and suicide, as well as of those who struggle to fit the prescribed Christian mold.” –Publishers Weekly

“This secular story about religious people could easily devolve into camp mockery, but because Walker takes her character’s crisis of faith seriously and sensitively, readers will, too.” –Kirkus Reviews

OUR INTERVIEW:

KRISTINA: In my book, THE ESPRESSOLOGIST, Jane, a coffee barista, matchmakes people based on their favorite coffee drinks. What’s your favorite coffee drink? (If you don’t like coffee, tell me what your favorite drink in general is. But I am sorry, you’ll never find love. Kidding!)

MELISSA: Iced coffee, even in winter. Light and sweet, please! I like it to taste like coffee ice cream.

KRISTINA: How do you come up with the names of your characters?

MELISSA: Sometimes they just come to me, but if they don't, I like to walk through cemeteries and look at names. Quirky, I know, but it's really fun!

KRISTINA: Are you on twitter? Where can we follow you?

MELISSA: I am! I'm twitter.com/melissacwalker. Warning: I tweet a lot during March Madness (Go Heels!) and I tend to obsessively tweet about TV I love (the latest being "Friday Night Lights"--so sad it's over!).

KRISTINA: What are you working on now?

MELISSA: My next book, Unbreak My Heart, will be out in 2012 from Bloomsbury. It's a story about lost friendships, betrayal and summer love (I'm vague, I know! I haven't talked about it much in detail yet!).

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

MELISSA WALKER: Melissa has worked as ELLEgirl Features Editor and Seventeen Prom Editor. She is the author of the Violet on the Runway series as well as Lovestruck Summer. Melissa manages I Heart Daily, an e-newsletter and blogs for ReaderGirlz, an online community for teens. www.melissacwalker.com

Thanks Melissa! Good luck with your new book!

Ta Ta Netflix!

Netflix announced this week that they will be raising their prices 60% starting in September. Surely this means there will be all kinds of great features added to make this spike worth it right? Nope. If you get Netflix already, you'll know it's a DVD in your mailbox (one at a time)/streaming service. The only problem is the DVDs come in any order Netflix feels like sending them, they come broken or scratched half the time so you don't get to actually watch the entire movie, you don't get the newest movies, and the streaming service only has really old, odd, no one rents them anyway, movies available. Ok, so why am I paying an extra 60% for this? The president of Netfilx thinks it's no biggie-- just the price of a couple of lattes a month he says. JUST A COUPLE OF LATTES? Have you met me? You want to take an additional 24 lattes away from me a year for your crappy service? Um, no.

CANCEL

I'm going to switch to some alternatives. For one, there's always Redbox. You can actually get newly released movies from them for only $1. Considering we only watch 3-4 DVDs a month, this isn't much. The library (at least mine) can get any newly released movie in as well. If they don't have it they'll get it from another library. I just go online, place the movies I'm looking for on hold, the library calls me when it's available, and I pick it up in the drive thru. Nice!

I wonder how many other Netflix customers will also be fed up and say, TA TA NETFLIX?

Happy 4th!

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!!

Why yes, that is Princess Aurora enjoying the fireworks, courtesy of my 6 yr old. :-)

Girlfriend's Cyber Circuit: STARRING SUZANNE YOUNG!

Suzanne Young is visiting to talk about her new book, A NEED SO BEAUTIFUL.

About the Book:

We all want to be remembered. Charlotte’s destiny is to be Forgotten…

Charlotte's best friend thinks Charlotte might be psychic. Her boyfriend thinks she's cheating on him. But Charlotte knows what's really wrong: She is one of the Forgotten, a kind of angel on earth who feels the Need—a powerful, uncontrollable draw to help someone, usually a stranger.

But Charlotte never wanted this responsibility. What she wants is to help her best friend, whose life is spiraling out of control. She wants to lie in her boyfriend's arms forever. But as the Need grows stronger, it begins to take a dangerous toll on Charlotte. And who she was, is, and will become—her mark on this earth, her very existence—is in jeopardy of disappearing completely.

Charlotte will be forced to choose: Should she embrace her fate as a Forgotten, a fate that promises to rip her from the lives of those she loves forever? Or is she willing to fight against her destiny—no matter how dark the consequences?

Our Interview:

KRISTINA: In my book, THE ESPRESSOLOGIST, Jane, a coffee barista, matchmakes people based on their favorite coffee drinks. What’s your favorite coffee drink? (If you don’t like coffee, tell me what your favorite drink in general is. But I am sorry, you’ll never find love. Kidding!)

SUZANNE: I always get a skinny vanilla latte. What does that mean for me??

KRISTINA: You’re sweet, trustworthy, kind, and a good friend. Also sorta health conscious, but like an occasional splurge. J

How do you come up with the names of your characters?

SUZANNE: I spend a lot of time on baby naming sites. But I’m fond of old fashioned names. Sometimes I switch character’s names in revisions, which happened with A NEED SO BEAUTIFUL.

KRISTINA: What are you reading right now?

SUZANNE: I’m reading THE GATHERING by Kelley Armstrong.

KRISTINA: Are you on twitter? Where can we follow you?

SUZANNE: Sure am! @suzanne_young

KRISTINA: What are you working on now?

SUZANNE: The sequel A WANT SO WICKED is due next summer. And I have a new series THE PROGRAM coming Spring 2013 from Simon Pulse.

About the Author:

Suzanne Young currently lives in Portland, Oregon, where she uses the rainy weather as an excuse to stay inside and write obsessively. After earning her degree in creative writing, Suzanne spent several years teaching middle school language arts. Now she can be found at home chasing after her two children and poorly behaved dog and writing novels for teens. You can visit her online at www.suzanne-young.blogspot.com or follow her on Twitter @suzanne_young.

Check out the trailer for the book: