Megan Frazer

I’ve been putting off writing this post, mostly because it is related to a friend who is suffering, and sometimes I can be like a child. If I don’t admit the suffering, it isn’t happening. But it is happening. As she has recently written about, the lovely and talented L.K. Madigan was diagnosed with stage IV pancreatic cancer. And while I may want to run screaming “La la la la la la I can’t hear you!” into the wind, she is handling it with courage and grace.

Lisa and I met through the 2009 Debutantes, a group of writers who had their first YA or MG book coming out in 2009. For me, it was a support group. We are all family, and Lisa is one of our many hearts. When we heard about her diagnosis, we wanted to do something, and Cindy Pon came up with the idea of spreading the love.

Basically, we want to get the word out about Lisa and her books, Morris winner Flash Burnout and her new release The Mermaid’s Mirror. If you help to spread the love about her books, you will be entered to win one of forty sets of her books from the Debs.

So, blog, tweet, review, etc. and then go to this post and explain what you did and you will be entered.

And, as if that weren’t enough, her publisher, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, is stepping up to the plate with a giveaway just for libraries. Budgets are tight, library friends: an email can win you two free books!

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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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.

The lovely L.K. Madigan is running a contesty-eventy thing called Blogging Alternatives in May. For all the details, visit the post.

Now from the very fist posting I thought this was a wonderful idea. And I did get out and about in May. For example, I:

• went on the trapeze for the first time in almost two years (that’s right, I was trapezing before Maureen Johnson made it cool).
• went to visit my new itsy-bitsy nephew
• made this cake from Gourmet magazine (I made it with blueberries — highly recommended!)
• hiked in our town forest

I just, um, never did the whole posting about it thing. In part because I never thought to bring my camera. And now here it is the last day of May and I am trying to sneak in a blog about BAMing. I am going to pick just one thing I did, although I don’t have any pictures, which was one of the stipulations.

So the one thing I am going to talk about is the Oyster River Festival. This was held in my hometown to raise money for local youth, and in honor of the two brothers of my friend Ben. It was kind of like a reunion, seeing a bunch of people I grew up with. But what was really neat for me was seeing all of these people who were so active in the arts. A number of people I went to school with are making a go of it in music, film, and more, and that was quite inspirational to me.

Sadly, I missed Groovechild. When I was in middle school, these guys were in high school. Sometimes they would come and play our dances. Swoon.

That guy playing the banjo is my friend Mike — not an original member of the band — he’s played solo, in the band The Mammals, and is now touring with his wife as Mike and Ruthy.

Thanks for inspiring us all to get out of our houses, L.K.!