The multi-talented Lauren Baratz-Logsted is at it again, folks. And by that I mean she's out-written every writer on earth this year and it's barely mid-May. She has TWO books coming out this spring/summer, The Sisters Eight Book 5: Marcia's Madness, and her latest YA, The Education of Bet.

If you haven't read Lauren's adult fiction (The Thin Pink Line) or YA ( Crazy Beautiful) or middle grade fiction (The Sisters Eight series), you should. Not only is Lauren, in her own words, the only woman in the world who has ever both hosted a book signing party and washed the windows of the late best-selling novelist Robert Ludlum, she is prolific and a damn good writer. I know, my teenaged son and I nearly came to blows trying to share Crazy Beautiful between us. Words to the wiser-than-me: buy multiple copies.

So. Back to blog business. Lauren, or LBL as I call her (because it's what I call my YA novel, Little Black Lies, and I'm pretty certain that's why LB married L in the first place -- to steal my acronymical thunder) is here to answer ONE question. Why not TWO questions, you might be wondering, because of the TWO new books. Well, don't. I wondered the same thing had my virtual hand snapped at, mainly because she knows I'm on to her with the whole acronym thing. More on the fabulous books below. First my ONE question:

"What is the best and worst writing advice you've ever received and why?"

 
THE SISTERS EIGHT BOOK 5: MARCIA'S MADNESS, the fifth in the series for young readers aged 6-10 that Lauren created with her novelist husband Greg Logsted and their 10-year-old daughter Jackie; pub date May 3, you can definitely pick it up on Amazon or your local bookstore.



















THE EDUCATION OF BET, Lauren's next YA, set in Victorian England, due out July 12. Preorder on Amazon.

To have the guts to look to my past, my childhood, for what unsettles me most. What really scares me. Because this emotion is exactly what my new book needs. I'm only on page 40 of this one, my fourth for adults, so it's too early to say much about it. I'll share once I'm further along.

If you'd like to read a hilarious author interview that will have you crushing on both interviewer and interviewee, click on over to BiblioBuffet for Lauren Baratz-Logsted's The Disrespectful Interviewer. Lauren serves it up to none other than the esteemed Jon Clinch (author of FINN and the upcoming KINGS OF THE EARTH), who, I must say, does a supreme job of dishing it right back. Prepare to adore them both.

Lauren Baratz-Logsted is the author of CRAZY BEAUTIFUL.

I'm very excited about my next book for adults, I wrote it over a period of about two years and it was inspired, but has nothing to do with, by my father's back surgery. My single father lives out in California, my youngest brother lives in Vancouver and my sister, other brother and I live in the northeast. So when Dad announced he needed someone to care for him for two weeks post-op, it was no simple feat to decide who could up and go. Turned out Michael, the youngest, was able to transport his work down south and be there for our dad. We were never going to leave Dad to himself, if it hadn't been Michael, my sister or I would have pulled our kids out of school and hopped on a plane.

Our dad is lucky, he has four kids who care, but the experience got me thinking: what happens when the aging parent had wronged his children or child in the past? How would that child react when the parent is vulnerable and a reversal of roles becomes real? So here was the seed for a story. All I needed to do was think up a paternal act that could not only be proven later in my heroine's life, but would be irrevocable, unspeakable, and unforgivable.

This one terrible act, a dozen years in the past, became the basis for THE TRUTH ABOUT DELILAH BLUE. 

From the catalogue: Delilah Blue has always been a bit of an outsider, ever since she moved from Toronto to Los Angeles when she was eight. Twenty now and desperate to become an artist like her long-lost mother but unable to pay for classes, Delilah does something nearly unthinkable. She takes a job as an art model, peeling off her clothes for a classroom full of students so she can learn from the professors as the students draw parts she'd much rather keep under wraps.

Her only real companion in life is her father--a dapper, single salesman. But as he's entered his mid-50s, his personality seems to be changing. He forgets simple tasks and is often disoriented, signs that he is going through early-onset Alzheimer's. The disease presents just as Delilah's long-estranged mother, who Delilah always believed abandoned the family, re-enters the scene with a young daughter in tow and reveals a secret about the past that will permanently change their lives. Delilah must decide if her mother is the selfish woman she's always assumed left her behind or whether somewhere deep inside her father's memory is the truth behind the family's separation.

Cover soon... 

This from the lovely and talented Adrienne Kress, author of Alex and the Ironic Gentleman and Timothy and the Dragon's Gate:

LITTLE BLACK LIES is a funny, poignant tale of high school intrigue taken to the nth degree (and occasionally times Pi).  With effortless panache, Tish Cohen creates the ultimate private school story.  All the usual suspects are there: the new kid, the popular girl, the unattainable boy . . . but she gives each a unique and unexpected twist.  Nor is this book all light and escapist fluff.  Cohen tackles such complex issues as Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, divorce, and the insane pressures put on students in gifted programs, and she does it with such a deft touch that the book never feels heavy-handed or veers into movie of the week sentimentality.  LITTLE BLACK LIES might be about deception, but it is a brutally honest book with a fabulous sense of humour that keeps you turning the pages right until the very end.  In other words:

(wicked sense of humour) + (awesome characters)(searingly astute observations) - sentiment = (one great read)

The process of asking for author blurbs for a new book is rather terrifying. As a writer, you know how busy other authors are and you are loathe to disturb them. And as you ask--because we all must ask--you inwardly cringe and hope they deem your book interesting enough to take a peek.

Something about the whole process takes me back to the day in junior high when my best friend was away and I had to hunt for a place to sit in the caf. I wandered around with my tray, looking for empty seats and before I sat down, asked the dreaded question with my eyes. May I sit with you?

Read: Am I worthy? 

Ugh.

Anyway, I'm happy to report my first blurb for LBL is in and I LOVE it...

Tish Cohen's LITTLE BLACK LIES is a searingly clear-eyed, sharply funny portrait of High-School-Peer-Pressure Gone Wild. Social misfit Sara Black's account of her year at America's premier institute for hyper-over-achievers is full of gut-punch emotion and compelling insights from a smart girl forced to navigate the treacherous hallways of Anton High--a school of piranhas in kilts and knee-socks. This is a place where good things only seem to happen to bad kids and a good kid has no choice but to do bad things. By turns charming and ironic, brave and infuriating, Sarah makes you want to stand up and cheer for her--and send her to her room all at the same time.

- Lesley Livingston, author of WONDROUS STRANGE and DARKLIGHT

My spam filter is a god. It filters out the monster amounts of requests I get from the monarchs in faraway lands who cannot decide where to keep all their money and the Christmas spammers whose first lines read something like: Imagine the look in your girl's eyes on Christmas morning when you surprise her with your giant package. Actually, I'd like to be there for that one. You can just see her kneeling by the tree, all done up in her holiday leggings and candy cane flavored lip gloss. It's the first Christmas she's spent with Roland, her boyfriend of seven months and he SWORE he was getting her something special. She can see something in him as changed today. He's grinning sheepishly and the flush on his cheeks is hiding his adult acne. She wonders if it's a ring. It could be a ring, she tells herself. Her cousin Kathi got a ring after only six and a half months. She was in her second trimester, but still. When Roland--Roro, she'll call him once they're married--finally asks her if she's ready...yeah, I'd like to be in that room. Wearing a rubber coat, though. Because there's probably a lot of blood in that thing and when she hacks it off, well. I'll be thankful for the wellies and rain bonnet.

Anyhoo. On to the downside of dependable spam filters. You miss some real gems. I guess I'm one of the lucky ones, because my blackberry still lets the spam through. And thank the Christmas shepherds for that because it's what drew to me my Snezhana, the Russian stomatologist (in local hospital) /dentist whose dating service has assured her that I am her very special "man from other country." How she plucked me out of the zillions of other women out there is truly another Festivus miracle.

Unfortunately for Snez, I'm not only female but married. But I have to admit I did fall in love with her zeal, even if she isn't real and six twenty-somethings in Nigeria dreamed her up as a cover under which to peddle fake Rolex watches. Go on and read it. Tell me you aren't rooting for Snezhana just a wee bit.

Hello my new friend!

I understand, that you do not know me and I do not know you, but
probably in the future all can change. All good always occurs in the
future and I ask a few patience from you to read my letter up to the
end. In the beginning I want to be presented you and to tell a little
about my life. My name is Snezhana and to me it will be very pleasant,
if you will name me so. Was born 31 years ago and all this time I live
in Russia, in Cheboksary. I give many time to work, I work
Stomatologist, in local hospital. It is possible to tell and in other
words that I the dentist. I communicate every day with different
people and to all the separate approach is necessary. In my work there
are people from absolutely small age and to the adult. My life goes in
regular intervals and every day is similar on previous. I like my
friends and love my family. Certainly the most important i want to
found love and my the husband to be the happiest woman in the world.
For all my life I could not meet the man to which I could trust
completely and with which I would like to connect my life, but very
much I want.
Several days ago I laid at home on a bed and thought. Why I am
lonely? Why I cannot find my special the man? Probably I have made
nothing to be happy? Certainly I can be together with the man which I
not love, to give birth to the child and simply to be mum, but to not
be happy in the family, but I do not want it. I want to love the man
and simply be happy to be with him. Also I have thought. Why to not
try to get acquainted with the man from other country if I could not
find my special man here in Russia? Now we live in 21 century and I
know, that many people use the Internet and "Marriage agencies" to
get
acquainted with suitable the man in any point globe. I do not want to
be lonely during my life or simply to sit and wait, when my love will
come to me. I want to do itself my life happy and have found such
marriage agency here in my city. I knew, that their help will be not
free-of-charge, but they have asked the big sum of money from me.
Nevertheless I have thought and have decided to not be greedy this
money, for the sake of my happiness and my love. Money - never can
give to me of it. Probably my destiny to be with the man from other
country? I do not know, but I want to try to know.
They gave to me yours E-mail and have told, that you also are
interested to find the woman for a life. I think, that now you can
understand, how my letter has come to you, could learn a little about
my life and about me, but I do not know your desires and I ask to
think. We can try to build serious relations or probably simply to be
friends. If you do not have desire simply speak to me and I can
understand. Nevertheless if I am interesting to you it would be very
pleasant for me to learn also a little more about you and to receive
your photos. I understand in computers not much, but I hope, that you
also can receive my photos in this letter. Certainly appearance not
the most important in the person both his private world and soul are
of great value, but nevertheless it is more pleasant to receive the
letter from the person and to see, how he looks. All this, that I
wanted to tell to you and now I shall wait only your answer. Excuse,
if I something have offended you in my letter or something has told
not correctly, but understand, that I try it for the first time and I
worry a little. Even if serious relations are not interesting to you
or I am not pleasant, simply let to me know. Ok?

Please reply only at my personal e-mail:  xxxxxxx

bye bye

> In search men the love !!!

Karen Dionne, author of the recently released Freezing Point and co-founder of Backspace, The Writers' Place, asks not what the book industry can do for her, but what she can do for the book industry in these insane economic times.

Karen has come up with a great new blog to help convince the book-buying public that books make the very best gifts of all this holiday season, When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Buy Books. The challenge? To encourage people to buy one book or dozens for themselves or as gifts. Then pop by the blog to record your purchases. Every book listed gets posted to the pretty book-o-rama and books listed in the comments trail are added to an ever growing list of favorites. Karen's goal? To encourage the sale of one million books.

So buy a book or ten today and get your tail over to Karen's to record your fabulousness, you forward thinking little thing. Books make the very best gifts. Besides the obvious gift of story and learning and entertainment you'll be bestowing upon that loved one (even if said loved one is self)  books make great gifts because they're relatively inexpensive, can't get crushed in the mail without some serious effort, the dog probably won't rip into them on Christmas Eve when you're sleeping unless you've rubbed the covers in meat, and they are guranteed not to make you fat.

Give a book and you look good all around.

Image courtesy of The Writers' Group 

 

    

There's a special uncategorized category of books I refer to as comfort books. These are books I'll return to again and again, not because of what happened in the story necessarily, but because I want to revisit the lives of the characters that inhabit it.

These books have heart.

I've read every book ever written by Rosamunde Pilcher simply because the homes her characters create embody the way I'd like to live. These cottages are strewn with threadbare rugs, merry fires, and sleeping dogs. There's always a scrubbed wooden table, some sort of stew bubbling on the Aga, and a dried-up heel of gingerbread to offer to whoever happens by in search of a restoring cup of tea. When I read her books, I take a bit more pleasure in cooking, cleaning, and nesting in general. I pull out my vintage tablecloths and use only vinegar to clean the house (lest you get the wrong idea, my house isn't as pristine as I'm leading you to believe here).

Then there's Jane Austen. Her brilliant stories and characters aside, I love to revisit a world of elegant country homes, simple needs, and short lace-up boots meant to be worn with long cotton dresses. Alexander McCall Smith brings me comfort in the stark functionality of Precious Ramotswe's detective agency. Patricia Wood in her Orange-Prize shortlisted book, Lottery, brought me comfort in bringing me back to the summers I spent with my grandmother when I was young.

I could go on and on listing books that warm my heart. But I won't.

Today is the launch day for my novel, Inside Out Girl, in the U.S. I've been asked a few times why I wrote the book and my answers can be found in the Q&A on my website in the book section. But there's another reason I haven't spoken about. Inside Out Girl is a story of two splintered families who are affected by a young child with a severe learning disability. Both families bring their own busted histories to the scrubbed wooden table. It's a story about parenting. About frustration and guilt. Doing the right thing, doing the wrong thing. But most of all it's a story about a girl who has never had any power of her own and how she surprises everyone by becoming a neighborhood hero. And while Rachel Berman's house probably won't inspire you to go at your kitchen grout work with vinegar and a scrub brush, I hope you'll find this to be a story about heart.