Megan Frazer

So in publishing, nothing is certain. When a book is sold, a release date is set, but that date doesn’t always stick. For reasons big and small, things get published earlier and later. Such was the case with Kimberly Derting’s debut The Body Finder. And so, quite fabulously, I get to host another contestant in the Debs Pageant!

Character name: Violet Ambrose
Age: 17
Biography:
Just your typical teenager…except for my unusual talent (listed below).

What is your talent?
I can find murder victims by the echo they leave behind. To make things worse, that specific echo also attaches to the killer responsible for their death. Other than that, I’m perfectly normal!

What will you wear for the evening dress competition?
Something super-hot. I really want Jay to notice me!

Who is your escort?
Jay Heaton, my best friend since the first-grade.

And now for the interview portion . . . What’s the biggest challenge facing today’s youth?
Technology has created a lot of really great venues for kids to connect, to study, to entertain themselves, but it’s also created a generation of impatience. With everything accessible at their fingertips, attention spans seem to be getting shorter. Sometimes it’s nice to slow down and un-plug!

What color best represents you and why?
Probably yellow, because it’s cheery and fun. (Yes, even I know how lame that sounds!) But it’s true, I try to see the humor in situations whenever possible, it’s way harder to be negative than to laugh!

If you could change one thing about the world, what would it be?
More vacation time! For everyone!!! Don’t we all need a good vacation now and then???

Thank you Violet and Kimberly!

I keep hearing great reviews of The Body Finder so you all should go out and read it. It’s available from Amazon. Or support a local independent bookstore. Kim recommends Third Place Books in Seattle. You could also look for it at your local library.

Can you believe it? One more pageant contestant! It’s Fiona from Kristin Walker’s hilarious debut A Match Made in High School. So, on with the pageant!

Character name: Fiona Sheehan
Age: 17
Biography: My name is Fiona, and I’m a senior in high school. I’m only here because I lost a bet with my best friend, Marcie. My hobbies include listening to music, cracking jokes, and complaining about how lame my parents are.

What is your talent? I can tie my hair up in a bun without using any hair accessories. Sometimes I use a pencil or a clothespin.

What will you wear for the evening dress competition? Some horrid monstrosity I borrowed from Mar.

Who is your escort? What the hell is an escort? Isn’t that another name for a prostitute? What kind of pageant is this, anyway?

And now for the interview portion . . . What’s the biggest challenge facing today’s youth?
How about: trying to get through high school without an unplanned pregnancy, an STD, or a drug addiction. What? What’d I say wrong? Hey, you asked.

Thanks, Megan!

Thank you Fiona and Kristin! I think you are the last contestant!

A Match Made in High School is available now. Pick it up from an Indie book store. Here’s what Kristin has to say about that: “Besides the great indie bookstore, Anderson’s Bookshop in Naperville, IL, I’d also like to recommend Read Between the Lynes in Woodstock, IL.

To learn more about Kristen and her work, please visit her website.

A number of Debs have come together to create a prize pack of signed books, to be auctioned off via Leaky Cauldron to help the relief effort in Haiti.

The book list is quite impressive, as are the other items up for auction (especially for Harry Potter fans). Feed your book addiction and help the people of Haiti.

One of the cool things about being an author and a librarian is that when ALA has conventions, I get to see my library peeps and my author peeps. And my current peeps introduce me to new peeps. (All this talk of peeps and libraries reminds me of one of my favorite sites.)

On Friday, I did a workshop about standards for school library media programs that was awesome. It was led by Pam Berger, who was just fantastic. Then I went to the author panel with Eric Van Lustbader, Chuck Hogan, Tracy Chevalier, and Julie Powell. Ostensibly it was about books into movies, but they talked about all sorts of things. As a new author, I found it fascinating and reassuring when they talked about reviews. Except for Lustbader, who insisted he didn’t read his I should have taken notes and written down quotes because they were interesting. Chevalier talked about how the reviews balanced her, since most people who write to her or come to her events like the books. Both she and Hogan mentioned that they wished they could learn something from them, which is one of the fallacies of book reviewing, I think, that the author will read it, incorporate it, and somehow improve their work.

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Greetings from ALA Midwinter! It seems fitting that my last contestant in the Debs Pageant should coincide with this conference. Full disclosure, I am actually typing this up a couple of days ahead because I am going to be in all day workshop, and then I’m going to the YALSA happy hour. But, when you read this, I will be there.

So, for the last time, 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. Our final contestant comes from Rhonda Stapleton’s Stupid Cupid. Let’s get on with the pageant!

Character name: Felicity
Age: 17
Biography: I am a brand-new matchmaker at Cupid’s Hollow. I love helping my fellow students and making a difference in my school by finding true love for them.

What is your talent? Caring about people. Is that a talent? Well, if it is, that’s mine.

What will you wear for the evening dress competition? I’m still in the process of shopping. I’m kind of broke right now, and my mom (aka, the House Nazi) won’t give me money. Tightwad!

Who is your escort? There’s only one escort I want–but I don’t want to say his name out loud and jinx it! *girly sigh*

And now for the interview portion . . . If you could change one thing about the world, what would it be? The one thing I would change is loneliness. No one would be alone–there has to be someone special out there for everyone. Even me, right?

Thanks Rhonda and Felicity!

Stupid Cupid is available now. Get it from Amazon, or at your local bookstore. Rhonda recommends Joseph Beth Bookstores–check them out! To find out more about Rhonda, visit her website.

It’s your last chance to win cool prizes from the Debs:

What are you waiting for? Go enter!

It’s Debsness time again! This is your penultimate chance to win silly goodies from all of the Debs.

If you are a librarian, don’t forget to enter our contest to win 46 brand new books!

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 a boy! I love when boys are in the pageant. His name is Blake, and he’s from L.K. Madigan’s Flash Burnout.

Character name: Blake
Age: 15
Biography: Hi, I’m Blake. I’m in the tenth grade at West Park High. I live with my parents, one shaved-headed jock brother named Garrett, and The Dog Formerly Known as Prince. My best friend is Riley, and my girlfriend is Shannon. She is sweet and funny and hot.

What is your talent?
I am the funniest 15-year-old in Portland, and my wit will be on display tonight!

What will you wear for the evening dress competition?
I know most dudes would go the safe route and wear, you know, slacks and a shirt. But I’m gonna go with a Utili-kilt, which shows off my sexy legs, so I can win this pageant-apalooza!

Who is your escort?
My girl, Shannon.

And now for the interview portion . . . What’s the biggest challenge facing today’s youth?
The biggest challenge facing today’s youth is getting a little private time, you know what I mean? My parents and the horrifying DeWinters (Shannon’s parents) are way too interested in where we’re going, what we’re doing, what time we’re going to be home, etc. Focus on your own lives, olds!

Thank you Blake and L.K.!

If you want to get to know Blake better, get your hands on a copy of Flash Burnout. I recommend indies, and L.K. recommends Annie Bloom’s Books in the other Portland (Oregon, that is). You can, of course, also order it from Amazon. I know you want to know more about L.K. Madigan, so visit her site, too.

And finally, if you want a Utili-kilt like Blake, check out their website. It’s an education.

I hope everyone had a good Halloween! Any fun costumes? At the school where I work the faculty did literary characters and I was Harriet the Spy.

Today it’s back to the Debs Pageant, with Jane from Kristina Springer’s debut The Espressologist. What’s the Debs Pageant? 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. So here we go with Jane!

Character name: Jane Turner
Age: 17
Biography: I’m a Chicago girl, senior in high school (when I show up), and a barista at a chain coffee shop. I’m not so great with guys but I’m a really good friend!

What is your talent? I’m an Espressologist! I can hook people up based on their favorite coffee drinks.

What will you wear for the evening dress competition? How about I bedazzle my work smock? Could be cute.

Who is your escort? My number one frat boy regular, Will. He’s so dreamy.

And now for the interview portion . . . If you could change one thing about the world, what would it be?
If I could change one thing about the world I would make good coffee affordable for all people. No more would citizens have to drink day old coffee from questionable looking gas stations just because it’s 99 cents for the big gulp size. No more would your average caffeine addict need to get a second mortgage just to afford his six extra shots of espresso in his daily Joe. If I had my way, coffee mugs would be bottomless, syrup would flow freely, and whipped cream or no whipped cream on that would never even be a question– there would ALWAYS be whipped cream. We would all live in harmony, with caffeine buzzes from sun up to sun down.

Thank you Jane and Kristina!

To find out more about Kristina and her book, please visit her website.

You can purchase The Espressologist through Amazon, or visit your local bookstore. Kristina recommends Anderson’s in Naperville, IL. Aprilynne Pike also recommended Anderson’s, so it must be an extra super fantastic Indie.

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 Roz from Lauren Bjorkman’s debut, My Invented Life.

Name: Roz Peterson aka Chub (That’s my sister’s evil nickname for me. Preferred nickname–Pixie.)
Age:17
Biography: I like attention, except the negative kind I keep getting for some reason. I’m so not new age, but sometimes turn to online ouija to answer life’s little questions.

What is your talent? I was born to be on stage. And this time I’m going to get the lead in the school play, even though there are others who might possibly be more talented than I am. But Shakespeare wrote Rosalind for me. For the pageant, I’ll perform a monologue from As You Like It.

What will you wear for the evening dress competition?
A neo-goth black dress. I have a secret “crush” on someone who’s into neo-goth.

Who is your escort? I hate to limit myself to a single person. My people will get back to you on that.

And now for the interview portion . . .

What’s the biggest challenge facing today’s youth?
I believe that it’s figuring out who you are, and daring to be that person, in a world with so many competing expectations (parental, societal, and peer).

What color best represents you and why?
Pink because I’m cheerful, naive, and generally nice to people. But I’m not fond of all things pink-e.g. the frilly frou frou stuff. I never owned a Barbie doll. I wanted a pink tutu to go with my black leotard when I was five, though.

If you could change one thing about the world, what would it be?
In my ideal world, we would accept each other in all our glorious diversity. Oh, can I delete greed and the hunger for power, too? I think this would end war, and let us focus on the important things.

Thank you Roz and Lauren!

If you want to learn more about Lauren and My Invented Life, please visit her website.

You can order My Invented Life from Amazon. You can also get it from a local indie. Here’s a recommendation from Lauren:

My small town of Taos, NM has a wonderful Indie bookstore called Moby Dickens. If you ever come here, be sure to drop by.