One of the recommended reads in this month's issue of readergirlz is the non-fic pick Wreck This Journal by Keri Smith. Many thanks to postergirl Miss Erin for bringing this cool, do-it-yourself book to our attention.

Wreck This Journal is exactly what the title implies: a journal you tear up, draw in, decorate, and create! I think The Plain Janes would be all over this book. Check out the awesome intro page as well as the Flickr group. Way to wreck a rec!

Want to win a free copy of Keri Smith's next book, How to Be an Explorer of the World? Click here to leave a comment with your email address at the readergirlz blog. One winner will be selected at random on Tuesday, July 14th and notified via email that day.
Note: Entrants must be residents of the U.S. or Canada and have a valid email address.

Hurricane Season, an annual national playwriting competition/new play festival, opens tonight. Nine scripts were selected from the submissions, and three one-act shows run back-to-back-to-back per weekend.

I'm performing in a comedic fairy tale entitled Lovely Day, which comes complete with knights, dragons, fair maidens, lots of quick costume changes, and lots of laughs.

Only six performances!
Friday, July 10th @ 8 PM
Saturday, July 11th @ 8 PM
Sunday, July 12th @ 2 PM
Friday, July 17th @ 8 PM
Saturday, July 18th @ 8 PM
Sunday, July 19th @ 2 PM

The line-up for the first two weekends is as follows:

Mastermind
Written by Michael Patrick Sullivan
Directed by Susan Lee
Featuring Brad Wilcox and Beth Ricketson

Lovely Day
Written by Kirsten Fatland
Directed by Maria Markosov
Featuring Allie Costa, Gwendolyn Druyor, Kristi Koehl, Vanessa Rice, Rendon Ramsey, and Zach Tewalthomas

Master of None
Written by Mira Gibson
Directed by Kerr Lordygan
Featuring Elan Garfias, Mason Hallberg, Albert Stroth, Erin Treanor, and Biff Wiff

The Sixth Annual Hurricane Season
at the Eclectic Company Theatre
5312 Laurel Canyon Boulevard
North Hollywood, California 91607

For more information, visit http://www.hurricaneseasontheatre.com - Click here for the full festival line-up!

To reserve tickets, call (818) 508-3003, email HurricaneSeason09@gmail.com or buy them online via Brown Paper Tickets. Tickets are $15 - and remember, you're getting three shows for the price of one!

See you at the theatre!

I am not old, but old enough
To know that you are very young.
It might be said I am the leaf,
And you the blossom newly sprung.

So I shall grow a while with you,
And hear the bee and watch the cloud,
Before the dragon on the branch,
The caterpillar, weaves a shroud.

- Interlude by Scudder Middleton

View all posts tagged as Poetry Friday at Bildungsroman.

Consult the Poetry Friday roundup schedule at Big A, little a.

Learn more about Poetry Friday.

Jessica Burkhart loves nothing more than horses. One conversation with her and you'll know it. When scoliosis sidelined her equestrian pursuits, she refused to let it diminish her passion for horses. Instead, she took up her pen, fired up her laptop, and began writing a book series for kids. Inspired by books she'd read as a child, Burkhart's Canterwood Crest series is completely worthy of being shelved alongside Throughbred and The Saddle Club, and I recommend it to horse lovers and riders.

Earlier this year, I spoke with Jess about her history, her writing, and her horses, both friend and fictional.

You are a reader, a writer, and a rider. Your new series for kids, Canterwood Crest, incorporates all three of these aspects of your life.

I'm so lucky to be able to bring all of those things together. I get to read and call it "work" and write about horses. I'm beyond grateful to be able to do that.

Your personal struggle with scoliosis stopped you from riding, but started you writing. Tell me about that.

I've been horse crazy since I could walk and my love of horses intensified even more when I started riding. I was a serious equestrian from second grade to early in my eighth grade year. When doctors told me that I needed a spinal fusion and that riding would be too risky after surgery, I was devastated! I thought my life had ended.

I started writing for magazines when I was fourteen as something to fill the void. Over a six year span, I had over a hundred articles published—not one of them about horses. I wouldn’t even look at a horse.

But then I got the idea for Take the Reins and I couldn't shake it. I had to write about girls who loved and rode horses. I was so scared that it would be painful to write about horses, but I went for it. And I loved every second of writing Take the Reins. I fell right back into the horse scene and my old knowledge about everything from tacking up a horse to naming the parts of a hoof was still there. Once you love horses, it's in your blood and I should have known better than to try to walk away from it. I'm so happy to have horses - even fictional ones - in my life again.

( Read more... )

Ride on over to the Canterwood Crest website and to Jessica's personal website. Visit Jessica's blog at either Blogspot or LiveJournal.

Related Booklist: Horsing Around

Katie Alender is a television producer by day, writer by night, and dog lover 24/7. Her debut novel, Bad Girls Don't Die, will appeal to fans of possessed-by-a-ghost stories, such as those published for kids and teens in the eighties and nineties. In addition to our shared fondness for this type of tale, Katie and I also have a favorite poem in common, this famous acrostic by Lewis Carroll. When I interviewed Katie, we spoke of her fears, her film studies, and her fun jobs. 

What inspired Bad Girls Don't Die? Have you always been fascinated or frightened by stories of ghosts or possession?

 

The initial idea was born one day when I imagined two sisters telling each other stories to ward off loneliness and to fill in gaps in their family history. As I wrote, the story just grew up around (and in some ways away from) that idea.

I’m fascinated by and scared of ghost stories. I think what gets me the most is the idea that you can move into a new house and make a new beginning and there’s something already living in the house. It could happen to anybody, and there’s something really frightening about that. It’s not like going and disturbing the mummy’s tomb, which is something most of us will never do - all you did to the ghost was enter its territory. (Note - I’ve never had any ghostly encounters myself, so I can’t say for sure whether they exist or not.) I’m also drawn to the idea that something can be scary without being gory. Blood and guts just don’t do it for me.
 

Do you have any favorite ghost stories? (Be they film/TV or classic tales or novels.)

 
One of my favorite movies is “The Others.” Another ghost story I love is a classic movie called “The Uninvited.” Reading-wise, ghost stories I’ve enjoyed include Stephen King’s “Bag of Bones” and Shirley Jackson’s “The Haunting of Hill House.” But I’m actually kind of a sissy when it comes to scary stuff, which is why I surprised myself by writing this type of book!

 
What did you feel was the biggest hurdle on the road to publication?

 
Before my sale, I’d say my biggest roadblock was myself.

( Read more... )

Visit Katie's website and blog.

Related Booklist: Mind Readers and Ghostly Visitors

This is the archive of exclusive author interviews conducted by Little Willow for the Bildungsroman blog and website. The most recent interview is the first to be listed.

Jessica Burkhart (Canterwood Crest)
Katie Alender (Bad Girls Don't Die)
Nikki Goldstein (GirlForce)
Grace Lin (Where the Mountain Meets the Moon)
Sarah Darer Littman (Purge)
Rachel Renee Russell (Dork Diaries: Tales From a Not-So-Fabulous Life)
Cylin Busby (The Year We Disappeared)
Lauren Myracle (Peace, Love, & Baby Ducks)
Thalia Chaltas (Because I Am Furniture)
Rosemary Clement-Moore (Prom Dates from H&!!)
Carolyn Hennesy (Pandora Gets Jealous)
Amber Benson (Death's Daughter)
Sarah Mlynowski (Parties & Potions)
Linda Urban (A Crooked Kind of Perfect)
Meg Cabot (Forever Princess)
Judy Blume (Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing)
Robin Benway (Audrey, Wait!)
Lisa Ann Sandell (Song of the Sparrow)
Emily Ecton (Boots and Pieces)
Sarah Darer Littman (Purge)
Luisa Plaja (Split by a Kiss)
Courtney Summers (Cracked Up to Be)
Tracie Vaughn Zimmer (The Floating Circus)
Helen Hemphill (The Adventurous Deeds of Deadwood Jones)
Amy Belasen and Jacob Osborn (Jenny Green's Killer Year)
Claire Mysko (You're Amazing! A No-Pressure Guide to Being Your Best Self)
Julie Kraut (Hot Mess: Summer in the City)
Barbara Jean Hicks (The Secret Life of Walter Kitty)
Carol Plum-Ucci (What Happened to Lani Garver)
Jen Calonita (Secrets of My Hollywood Life)
Debbie Reed Fischer (Swimming with the Sharks)
Taylor Morris (Total Knockout: Tale of an Ex-Class President)
Christopher Golden (Serial Interview, Part 13)
Kristin O'Donnell Tubb (Autumn Winifred Does Things Different)
Nancy Viau (Samantha Hansen Has Rocks in Her Head)
Christopher Golden (Serial Interview, Part 12)
Amelia Atwater-Rhodes (In the Forests of the Night)
Christopher Golden (Serial Interview, Part 11)
Paul Miller (Earthling Publications)
Christopher Golden (Serial Interview, Part 10)
Courtney Sheinmel (My So-Called Family)
Suzanne Supplee (Artichoke's Heart)
Brooke Taylor (Undone)
Christopher Golden (Serial Interview, Part 9)
Vivian French (The Robe of Skulls)
Christopher Golden (Serial Interview, Part 8)
E. Lockhart, Sarah Mlynowski, and Lauren Myracle (How to Be Bad)
Christopher Golden (Serial Interview, Part 7)
Christopher Golden (Serial Interview, Part 6)
Alison McGhee (Snap)
Cherry Cheva (She's So Money)
Denise Vega (Fact of Life #31)
Christopher Golden (Serial Interview, Part 5)
Christopher Golden (Serial Interview, Part 4)
Christopher Golden (Serial Interview, Part 3)
E.M. Crane (Skin Deep)
Jennifer Bradbury (Shift)
Tera Lynn Childs (Oh. My. Gods.)
Susane Colasanti (Take Me There)
Christopher Golden (Serial Interview, Part 2)
Suzanne Harper (The Secret Life of Sparrow Delaney)
Ingrid Law (Savvy)
Christina Meldrum (Madapple)
Gaby Triana (The Temptress Four)
Christopher Golden (Serial Interview, Part 1)
Shannon Hale (Book of a Thousand Days)
Liz Tigelaar (PrettyTOUGH)
April Lurie (The Latent Powers of Dylan Fontaine)
Sara Hantz (The Second Virginity of Suzy Green)
Jody Gehrman (Confessions of a Triple Shot Betty)
Laura Preble (Queen Geeks Social Club)
Robin Wasserman (Seven Deadly Sins, Skinned)
Josie Bloss (Band Geek Love)
Cheryl Klam (The Pretty One)
Teri Brown (Read My Lips)
Kim Flores (Gamma Glamma)
D. Anne Love (Defying the Diva)
Cecilia Galante (The Patron Saint of Butterflies, Hershey Herself)
Jennifer E. Smith (The Comeback Season)
Lisa McMann (Wake)
Dorian Cirrone (Prom Kings and Drama Queens)
Carmen Rodrigues (Not Anything)
Mary E. Pearson (The Adoration of Jenna Fox)
Maryrose Wood (My Life: The Musical)
Jennifer Ziegler (How NOT to Be Popular)
Jamie Ponti (Prama)
Siobhan Vivian (A Little Friendly Advice)
Sherri L. Smith (Hot, Salty, Sour, Sweet)
Robin Palmer (Cindy Ella)
Daphne Grab (Alive and Well in Prague, New York)
Lesley M.M. Blume (Tennyson)
Sara Lewis Holmes (Letters From Rapunzel)
Gabrielle Zevin (Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac)
Beth Kephart (Undercover, House of Dance)
Melissa Walker (Violet on the Runway)
Amy Goldman Koss (The Girls)
Meg Cabot (The Princess Diaries)
Liz Gallagher (The Opposite of Invisible)
Justina Chen Headley (Girl Overboard)
Aimee Ferris (Girl Overboard)
Jo Knowles (Lessons from a Dead Girl)
Kirsten Miller (Kiki Strike)
Michele Jaffe (Bad Kitty)
Sara Shepard (Pretty Little Liars)
Rachel Cohn and David Levithan (Naomi & Ely's No Kiss List)
Micol Ostow (Emily Goldberg Learns to Salsa)
Maureen Johnson (Girl at Sea)
Tom Sniegoski (Owlboy: The Girl with the Destructo Touch)
Jarrett J. Krosoczka (Punk Farm)
Erik Brooks (Lucy's Pups)
Eric Luper (Big Slick)
Paula Brehm-Heeger (2007-2008 YALSA President)
Justina Chen Headley, Lorie Ann Grover, and Janet Lee Carey (Readergirlz: 31 Flavorites)
Melissa Lion (Swollen, Upstream)
Christopher Golden (Body of Evidence)
Holly Black (The Spiderwick Chronicles, Ironside)
Jay Asher (Thirteen Reasons Why)
Kelly Bingham (Shark Girl)
Simmone Howell (Notes from the Teenage Underground)
Deborah Davis (Not Like You)
Tom Sniegoski (Billy Hooten, Owlboy)
Sara Ryan (The Rules for Hearts)
Simone Elkeles (How to Ruin a Summer Vacation)
Julie Halpern (Get Well Soon)
Caroline Hickey (Cassie Was Here)
Gretchen Olson (Call Me Hope)
Stephanie Hale (Revenge of the Homecoming Queen)
C. Leigh Purtill (Love, Meg)
Dana Reinhardt (A Brief Chapter in My Impossible Life)
Ysabeau Wilce (Flora Segunda)
Christopher Golden (The Menagerie: Crashing Paradise)
Jordan Sonnenblick (Drums, Girls & Dangerous Pie)
Sameera "Sparrow" Righton via Mitali Perkins (First Daughter: Extreme American Makeover)
Sarah Beth Durst (Into the Wild)
Kristen Tracy (Lost It)
Alex Richards (Back Talk)
Janet Lee Carey (Dragon's Keep)
Sonya Sones (What My Girlfriend Doesn't Know)
Cecil Castellucci (Beige)
Joni Sensel (Reality Leak)
Dia Calhoun (The Phoenix Dance)
Nina Malkin (Orange is the New Pink)
Karen Day (Tall Tales)
Julie Bowe (My Last Best Friend)
Sarah Miller (Miss Spitfire)
Laurie Halse Anderson (Speak, Twisted)
Elizabeth Scott (Bloom)
Alex Flinn (Beastly, Diva)
Wendy Toliver (The Secret Life of a Teenage Siren)
Laura Bowers (Beauty Shop for Rent ...fully equipped, inquire within)
Jessica Day George (Dragon Slippers)
E. Lockhart (Dramarama)
Mary Wilcox (The Hollywood Sisters)
Debra Garfinkle (The Band)
Kristen Buckley (Tramps Like Us)
Crissa-Jean Chappell (Total Constant Order)
Liane Bonin (Fame Unlimited)
Heather Brewer (The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod)
Shannon Greenland (The Specialists)
Carrie Jones (Tips on Having a Gay (Ex) Boyfriend)
S.T. Underdahl (The Other Sister)
Kerry Madden (The Maggie Valley Trilogy)
Margo Rabb (Cures for Heartbreak)
Jenny Han (Shug, interview two)
Jennifer L. Holm (Penny From Heaven)
Justina Chen Headley, Lorie Ann Grover, Dia Calhoun, and Janet Lee Carey (Readergirlz)
Robin Friedman (The Girlfriend Project)
Tracie Vaughn Zimmer (Reaching for Sun)
Terie Garrison (The DragonSpawn Cycle)
Lisa Graff (The Thing about Georgie)
Alison Bell (Zibby Payne and the Terrible, Wonderful Tomboy Experiment)
Jeannine Garsee (Before, After, and Somebody In Between)
Deb Caletti (The Nature of Jade)
Wendy Mass (Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life)
Paula Chase (So Not the Drama)
Melissa Schorr (Goy Crazy)
Nina Wright (Homefree)
Helen Hemphill (Runaround)
Sara Zarr (Story of a Girl)
Christopher Golden (The Veil)
Garret Freymann-Weyr (Stay With Me)
Lauren Baratz-Logsted (Angel's Choice)
Kirby Larson (Hattie Big Sky)
Lesley M.M. Blume (Cornelia and the Audacious Escapades of the Somerset Sisters)
Bonnie Dobkin (Dream Spinner)
Pamela Lowell (Returnable Girl)
Lisa Yee (Millicent Min, Girl Genius)
Raina Telgemeier (BSC Graphix)
Marcy Dermansky (Twins)
Christine MacLean (How It's Done)
Alex McAulay (Bad Girls)
Kelly Parra (Graffiti Girl)
Janette Rallison (It's a Mall World After All)
Amy Saidens (Simon Pulse book cover artist)
Micol Ostow (30 Guys in 30 Days)
Erin Downing (Dancing Queen)
Aimee Friedman (A Novel Idea)
Kelly McClymer (Getting to Third Date)
Jennifer Echols (Major Crush)
Niki Burnham (Do-Over)
Sarah Bushweller and Emily S. Morris aka Libby Street (Accidental It Girl)
Gena Showalter (Oh My Goth)
Justina Chen Headley (Nothing But the Truth (and a few white lies))
Bev Katz Rosenbaum (I Was a Teenage Popsicle)
Christopher Golden (Straight on 'til Morning)
Laura Wiess (Such a Pretty Girl)
Cara Lockwood (Bard Academy: Wuthering High)
Caridad Ferrer (Adios to My Old Life, interview two)
Beth Killian (The 310: Life as a Poser)
Jenny O'Connell (Plan B)
Tara Altebrando (The Pursuit of Happiness, interview two)
Susan Taylor Brown (Hugging the Rock)
Jenny Han (Shug)
Justine Larbalestier and Scott Westerfeld (Magic or Madness, Uglies)
Jennifer Lynn Barnes (Golden)
Tom Sniegoski (Serial Interview, Part 4)
A. Lee Martinez (Gil's All Fright Diner)
Tom Sniegoski (Serial Interview, Part 3)
Jordan Roter (Girl in Development)
Tom Sniegoski (Serial Interview, Part 2)
Lorie Ann Grover (On Pointe, Hold Me Tight)
Caridad Ferrer (Adios to My Old Life)
Chris Abouzeid (Anatopsis)
Tom Sniegoski (Serial Interview, Part 1)
Ally Carter (I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You)
Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
Rachel Cohn and David Levithan (Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist)
Tanya Lee Stone (A Bad Boy Can Be Good for a Girl)
Serena Robar (braced2bite)
Mari Mancusi (Boys That Bite)
Cynthia Lord (Rules)
Sarah Dessen (Just Listen)
Tara Altebrando (The Pursuit of Happiness)
Polly Shulman (Enthusiasm)
Jeanne Birdsall (The Penderwicks)
Amber Benson and Christopher Golden (Ghosts of Albion: Accursed)
Christopher Golden (Last Breath)

Themed interviews with multiple authors:
Looking Forward
Their Favorite Books
Hope
Family

This archive is mirrored at the Bildungsroman website.

GirlForce, a non-fiction book and related website by Nikki Goldstein, encourages teen girls to be healthy: to find a healthy balance between school, work, family, and friends; to live well by eating healthful foods, exercising, resting, and reducing stress; to be self-confident and self-aware, each to a healthy degree. When I recently interviewed Nikki, we discussed all of these elements and more.


In your own words, what is GirlForce?

GirlForce is the spirit or energy of life that resides in every human. I call it GirlForce so it's easy for girls to relate to, but it's happiness, peace, vitality, energy and especially love. When girls connect to their GirlForce (through practices outlined in my books such as yoga, meditation self-loving pampering, being in nature, having fun etc) they glow with the love-energy inside – their GirlForce!

One of the GirlForces quizzes determines your body type - Air, Fire, or Earth - based on Ayurveda principles. I'm Fire. Which element are you?

I am an Earth girl. And this is an important point, because being an Earth girl (with curves), I always found my look was out of step with fashion. As a teenager I struggled with my body image but at the same time I refused to diet. Somewhere deep inside I was rebelling against the rigid mores of fashion which dictated a very limited ideal of beauty. As I became a woman and worked in magazines I petitioned my editors to break with the code (that skinny, white, blonde equals beauty) and they always refused - saying that the prevailing ideal was actually what sold magazines. GirlForce is my way of rewriting the code. As an Earth girl I always wanted permission just to be myself, curves and all! I hope that no matter what shape or size, skin colour, nationality girls will relate to my self-love message.

( Read more... )

To learn more about GirlForce, visit http://www.mygirlforce.com or http://www.girlforce.com.au

June 2009: 27 books read

For ages 13 and up
The President's Daughter by Ellen Emerson White
Paisley Hanover Acts Out by Cameron Tuttle
Mare's War by Tanita S. Davis
It's Not You, It's Me by Kerry Cohen Hoffmann
Broken by Alyxandra Harvey-Fitzhenry
Shine, Coconut Moon by Neesha Meminger
Breathing by Cheryl Renée Herbsman
The Longest Distance by Beth Kephart (published in the anthology No Such Thing as the Real World, which contains stories written by six different authors)

For ages 10 and up
Juicy Gossip by Erin Downing
Julia Gillian (and the Quest for Joy) by Alison McGhee, with art by Drazen Kozjan

Non-Fiction
National Geographic: How to Be an Egyptian Princess by Jacqueline Morley, illustrated by Nicholas J. Hewetson

Thanks to Jim Rugg for this art gallery, which includes images from The Plain Janes, Janes in Love, and never-before-seen pages from Janes Go Summer, the third volume which Cecil & Jim had started working on before the Minx line of comics was cancelled.

Click any thumbnail below to open the full-sized image in a new window.

   
   
   

To learn more about the books and see even more images, check out the July issue of readergirlz!

Have questions about the art of Janes, or about drawing graphic novels? Ask the artist directly! Jim Rugg will be joining author Cecil Castellucci for this month's rgz LIVE! chat, which will be held at the readergirlz blog on Wednesday, July 22nd at 6 PM PST/9 PM EST. Hope you'll join us, too!

Mark your calendars! Christopher Golden will be appearing at the following events and signings:

July 16th-19th, 2009
Necon (Northeastern Writers' Conference
Bristol, Rhode Island

August 28th-30th, 2009
Christopher Golden will be the Horror Guest of Honor at Context
Columbus, OH

September 4th - 7th, 2009
DragonCon
Atlanta, GA

Please note that signings are subject to change.

I also post his appearance schedule at his website.