Megan Frazer

In Secrets of Truth & Beauty, Dara is a former child pageant star. So, in order to introduce you to the wonderful authors and characters of the 2009 Debutantes, I am hosting a Debs Pageant on my blog.

Today’s pageant contestant is Callie from Mandy Hubbard’s Prada & Prejudice. Interesting bit of trivia: Mandy has actually been in a pageant. So, with an expert in our midst, let’s begin today’s pageant!

Character name: Callie Montgomery
Age:15
Biography: I’m a sophomore in high school. I’m super smart (science and math are a total breeze).

What is your talent? I play “Chopsticks” on the piano.

What will you wear for the evening dress competition? A period gown from 1815. It’s emergald green satin.

Who is your escort? Alexander Thornton-Hawke, the Duke of Harksbury. He looks killer in a tux.

And now for the interview portion . . .Callie, you’ve had the chance to live in two worlds — our own and 1815. If you could change one thing about the world of 1815, what would it be? In 1815, girls don’t have a voice– not even when its about who they’ll marry! My friend Emily is being forced to marry a fifty year old Baron. EWW! So now its up to me to show people that she should be able to marry the guy she loves, whether her dad likes him or not.

Thank you Callie and Mandy!

Visit Mandy at her website. You can order Prada & Prejudice on Amazon, or buy it from your local independent bookstore.

I dropped in over at Books by Their Cover to talk about food! Pop over yourself and tell us all what your favorite summer meal is.

In other news, it’s just over a week until book launch! If you’re in New Hampshire, come visit me at my book launch party.

Oh, and getting back to food, later in the week I’ll let you know about my trip to a literary destination in Maine where I had great blueberry pancakes. Any guesses where it was?

In Secrets of Truth & Beauty, Dara is a former child pageant star. So, in order to introduce you to the wonderful authors and characters of the 2009 Debutantes, I am hosting a Debs Pageant on my blog.

Just yesterday Cyn Balog’s Fairy Tale was released, and today we get to meet Cam Brown (yay! a boy!)

Character name: Cam Browne
Age: 16
Biography: Grew up a regular guy, voted most popular, Junior Varsity quarterback, recently became King of Otherworld.

What is your talent? Making things materialize out of thin air.

What will you wear for the evening dress competition? Gold lame hotpants. Um, actually, probably a tuxedo.

Who is your escort? Dawn, since I can’t seem to shake her.

And now for the interview portion . . . If you could change one thing about the world, what would it be? I’d make 8:55 am HEAD NOOGY TIME, so that at that minute of the day, everyone must stop what they’re doing and just give whoever they’re with a Head Noogy.

Thank you Cam and Cyn!

If you want to find out more about Cyn or Fairy Tale, please visit her website.

You can order Fairy Tale through Amazon, but why not support your local independent bookstore? Cyn recommends Harleysville Books, Harleysville PA!

Launch Party!

I’m having a party and you’re all invited!

What: Launch Party for Secrets of Truth & Beauty

When: Wednesday July 8th at 7:00 pm.

Where: RiverRun Bookstore in Portsmouth, NH

What’s in it for you: yummy goat cheese treats, door prizes, and happiness.

If you are a facebook person, you can RSVP here (I think).

Also . . . a contest!

The first person to see my book in the wild and send me a picture will win a copy of Secrets of Truth & Beauty! Just send your picture to megan @ meganfrazer.com (Librarians and booksellers are eligible, you just need to see the book at a library or bookstore other than your own).

I did a very lovely interview with Kate from Read This Book! (well, she was lovely — you’ll have to decide for yourself about me), which is now posted on her blog. There are also instructions for how you can win a copy of Secrets of Truth & Beauty. Head on over for all of the details!

In Secrets of Truth & Beauty, Dara is a former child pageant star. So, in order to introduce you to the wonderful authors and characters of the 2009 Debutantes, I am hosting a Debs Pageant on my blog.

Avery from Dull Boy totally ditched the pageant to save the world or something, but luckily we have another contestant lined up for this week: Paris Pan from Cynthea Liu’s Paris Pan Takes the Dare.

Character name: Paris Pan
Age: 12
Biography: Awkward, but extremely bright, smart-mouthed 12-year-old yearning to be free.

What is your talent?
I am excellent at drawing bad facsimiles of horses.

What will you wear for the evening dress competition?
Hopefully nothing as tasteless as my sister Verona would wear. But most-likely a second-hand outfit from her closet anyway.

Who is your escort?
Why, Tom, of course.

And now for the interview portion . . . what’s the biggest challenge facing today’s youth?
People my age spend way too much time torturing each other versus enjoying each other’s company. We could also make the world a better place by removing the words Freak, Stupid, and Brain-Damaged from our vocabulary. Thank you.

Thank you Paris and Cynthea!

Paris has a big heart, and so does her creator. Cynthea is hosting an online launch party at her website: Take the Dare, Show you Care! She is raising money for a Title I school in her home state of Oklahoma: Tulakes Elementary. So head on over and enjoy the party while supporting a great cause.

In Secrets of Truth & Beauty, Dara is a former child pageant star. So, in order to introduce you to the wonderful authors and characters of the 2009 Debutantes, I am hosting a Debs Pageant on my blog.

Today we have Avery from Sarah Cross’s Dull Boy.

First a bit of background . . .

About Dull Boy

Superpowers are awesome — unless you actually have them, like Avery does. There’s only so much he can pass off as “adrenaline” before people start to get suspicious. Probably it’s best to lie low, so guys in white lab coats don’t come to carry him away, to find out what makes his freakish body tick. Who wants to be vivisected? But flying under the radar becomes a whole lot harder when you can actually fly. It’s dangerous to be different, so for now he’ll pretend to be normal, unremarkable Avery — a dull boy — anything to keep his secret safe.

What he doesn’t expect is the horrifying truth about where his powers came from, who else might have them, and the madness of one villain’s plan to turn this superpowered dull boy into something even more powerful and amazing.

 About Sarah Cross

 Sarah Cross has saved the world, like, five times since fifth grade — and you didn’t even notice. Learn her secrets at www.sarahcross.com.

And now for Avery!

Avery? Avery?

Hmm, well, it seems that Avery was called away on an unexpected emergency. Hopefully we’ll be hearing from him soon!

In the meantime, stay tuned for Paris Pan in the pageant on Friday.

Want free goofy goodies that relate to the Debs books? Click below!

In other news, I’ve set up a facebook page. I think I am going to use it mostly for updates, and links to YA writerly things that I think are interesting. It won’t be the same as my blog. So, if you’re interested, go ahead and fan me. Thanks!

In Secrets of Truth & Beauty, Dara is a former child pageant star. So, in order to introduce you to the wonderful authors and characters of the 2009 Debutantes, I am hosting a Debs Pageant on my blog.

Today I am very excited to introduce you to a character from Sarah Ockler’s 20 Boy Summer. Not only is she a fantastic author who is rightfully drawing comparisons to Sarah Dessen, but also she is the one who organized this whole Debs Blog Tour.

Character name: Frankie Perino
Age: 16
Biography: I’m main character Anna’s best friend. Since my brother Matt died last year, things have been really tough on everyone, and kind of weird between Anna and me. I’m really hoping our trip this summer will help her forget stuff and bring us closer again.

What is your talent? Definitely fashion and makeup. At least, those are the things that come easy for me, and that people expect me to be good at. I would love to sing, though no one has ever heard me. Well, just Matt, but he’s not here anymore.

What will you wear for the evening dress competition? Something tight and silver, long, flashy but not trashy, you know? I definitely need to look hot in this thing, but I don’t want to look, like, overdone.

Who is your escort? Can I pick my BFF Anna? Honestly I’m so tired of guys right now that I’d rather spend the night hanging out with my best girlfriend, even if I am in the hottest dress of the season.

And now for the interview portion . . . What’s the biggest challenge facing today’s youth?
The biggest challenge facing today’s youth is finding a way to be ourselves without fear of judgment. After my brother died, most of my friendships died, too. Everyone thought I didn’t want to talk about Matt, so they stopped asking about him, and the more I tried to find meaning in my life, the more unconnected – I mean, disconnected – I felt. It’s really hard to figure out how to be a “normal teen” when the meaning of “normal” keeps changing, and then when something crazy happens in your life, everyone seems to judge without asking. So it gets easier to live up to those judgments and bury the real you somewhere deep inside. I don’t mean to make this all about me. I see the same thing going on with all of my former friends. They’re all acting out these roles, like ways they think people want them to act, but I can see the truth in their eyes. I know how to look for it now — that look, I mean — because it’s the same one staring back at me every morning in the mirror. We’ve all got a long way to go before we can figure out how to be ourselves. Ugh. Listen to me going off. Anyway, how is this dress working out? Anna and I really know how to rock metallics, right?!

Thanks Frankie and Sarah!

If you want to find out more about Sarah, please visit her website.

To purchase her book, you can order it from Barnes & Noble, or go to your local bookstore. I asked Sarah for a bookstore recommendation, and here’s what she said:

If you’re in the Buffalo area, check out B is for Books in Orchard Park, NY. It’s an indie specializing in books for teens and kids, and Jane (the owner) is wonderful. We’re doing a Twenty Boy Summer Girls Day at the store on June 25, and I can’t wait! We’re going to make sea glass jewelry and drink lemonade and talk about books — yay! B is for Books is truly a great shop!

So shuffle off to Buffalo everyone!

Okay, it’s possible that I am the last person to see Juno, but I still want to write about it.

In my opinion, Juno isn’t really about Juno; it’s about Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman’s characters, the adoptive parents. Juno herself doesn’t have much of an arc: she makes her big decision at the beginning of the movie, and her character doesn’t change too much through out the film. What changes, really is her, and our perspective of Mark (Bateman). ***Spoiler alert if you actually haven’t seen it.*** Mark starts off seeming very cool, but by the end you realize he’s just afraid to grow up.

At least that’s how I see it. Conservatives have embraced it as a pro-life film. While others argued that it glorified teen pregnancy (the so-called “Juno Effect”).

And that’s what set the light bulb off for me: when you create a piece of art, you can’t control how others are going to interpret it. Yes this is lit-, film-, art-studies 101, and I knew it intellectually. But the timing of seeing this movie and having my book come out in a few short weeks made it clear to me on a personal level.

My book is out there, and now it’s not just mine anymore.