What Results When a Shar Pei Meets an Australian Cattle Dog

You get, well, a dog like Mary.

Mary is a shar pei/Australian cattle dog mix awaiting adoption through The Dog Shack rescue group in Forest Knolls, California.

Shelter folk say she's 30 pounds, about two years old, healthy and very, very sweet. She would do best in a home with previous dog experience. Mary will be spayed soon, and can be adopted any time! Phone 415-457-4544,

Here's an application form. Or, if you can't adopt now, offer to provide a foster home.

What are you waiting for?

Yes, Australian Cattle Dogs Really Are This Smart and Determined ... and Cute

Clips provided courtesy of SO, whose cattle dog has climbed a tree to get her flying turtle disc.



And, yes, they're just this adorable (and energetic) when puppies.

Insults We Have Known: Things Writers Hear

Over on her blog Betsy Lerner, who wrote THE FOREST FOR THE TREES, has asked writers to share some of the worst comments they've gotten about their work, mostly from friends and family. Here are some of the more appalling.

Did you type all this yourself?

No one reads that paper. It goes right in the blue box.

That’s cool, but it’s not REALLY a book at all, is it?

Everyone thinks they can write.

Well, it’s not something I’d seek out in a bookstore.

Wouldn’t you do better working retail or at a factory?

You would never would have been published if you weren’t half Mexican. (Or half white.)

You’re in your 40’s. If you were going to write a book you would have done it by now.

All the real writers live in New York City.

Oh, just a children’s book.

You should find better things to do with your time.

Your publisher pays for those [good reviews], right?

I didn’t finish it because I don’t like reading that kind of garbage.

Please note these are mostly from (supposed) friends and family of these writers.

I showed an early draft of my novel to my mother. She said: I've been there. (The novel opens in Lake Placid, New York, where my parents once visited.) That's it - three words, I've been there. No, she has no idea I now have a two-book deal. I learn. I may not learn fast, but I learn. I've been there, too, and I ain't going back.

To be fair, I have to point out that two of the best/worst anecdotes on Betsy's blog involve professional writers:

Upon showing a short story to a well known writer in residence.
She. Big sigh. “You set this in Hong Kong. Why don’t you write about what you know? You live on the Prairies.”
Me: “I did live in Hong Kong. For a couple of years.”
She: “No. You did not.”

A famous writer who shall remain anonymous and I had a private conference. He was saying a long string of vaguely discouraging things about my writing and finally I said, “Wait. Are you saying I should quit?” He said, “Well, yes. I think that would be best.”
My first book is coming out next April.

So here's my question: Do we become writers because of the insensitive people we're surrounded by? Are we better writers because our nearest and dearest love to put us down? Or does the act of writing somehow bring out the absolute worst in others?

What are the best - and worst - comments you've gotten from people about your writing? And how did you handle them?
 

And Now She Has a Book Deal

Those of you who read this blog will remember that back in September I worked with a young Australian author, Steph Bowe - I beta-read and critiqued her YA novel and was so impressed by it I asked if she was interested in getting a U.S. agent. She jumped on it; I steered her to some agents I knew and into a certain Secret Agent contest. Three of the four made offers and she signed with Ginger Clark of Curtis Brown. All in one very crazy three-week period.

And she's just sold Australian and New Zealand rights to her novel to Text Publishing. They're calling it a love story - not quite what I would call it, but, hey, just about every book has some love in it. What I knew as soon as I started reading is that it's a great story with compelling characters and that Steph has the most original voice I've seen in a long time.

An enormous congrats to a very talented and hard-working writer who deserves every bit of success that comes her way.

A Dog Named Smurf in Nashville, Waiting for You

Nashville-area readers, here's a great pet waiting for you.

Here's what the shelter folk say: This delightful young dog is an Australian Cattle Dog mix and is ten months old. He is such a sweetheart! Smurf is great on a leash and will sit and shake hands. He is shy at first, but blossoms with attention and affection from the shelter volunteers and staff who care for him. Smurf enjoys his daily walks around the dog park trail, where he trots happily at your side. He also loves to run and play, and we are teaching him to play fetch. Smurf has so much love to give, and will be such a devoted family companion!

Adoption fee is $65, which includes shots and neutering.

Email wcacangels@yahoo.com, call 615-790-5590, or go visit the Williamson County Animal Shelter at 138 Claude Yates Dr., Franklin, Tennessee (next to Franklin High School on Hillsboro Road). Tell 'em Sara sent you.

Yes, I Stole This from David Pogue

But it's just too funny not to mention.

It's a bizarre product for sale at Amazon - a portable desk that clips onto your steering wheel. (Yeah, how could that be legal, right?)

But what's hilarious are the reader pics and reader reviews - things like This has been a total lifesaver. It allows me to prop my sheet music against the wheel, allowing me to play the guitar with both hands while driving. 

Maybe people have too much time on their hands, but I love it that people have spontaneous senses of humor.

Here's David Pogue's post.

Somehow When the Guy is Green It Doesn't Quite Work

Yet Another Thing Wrong with Many Query Letters

They're boring. Lifeless. A recitation of events. Too many details, names and places, but not capturing the crux of the story.

You have to give agents a reason to keep reading. Or they won't.

I've belonged to an online writers group where people post query letters, and I used to offer critiques. But I stopped, because almost inevitably someone will come behind me and point out all the reasons I am wrong and how they like the query letter and would change only a word or two.  And almost inevitably the query letter is pretty much awful, with no one sentence or paragraph that tells you the theme of the books and stuffed with an incredible amount of irrelevant detail of character's names and attributes.

These query letters aren't going to interest an agent. And this makes me sad, because clearly the writers have put a lot of effort into their manuscripts.

"Critiquers" who cannot honestly critique - who cannot step back and read something as if  from a complete stranger, as if one of hundreds in a pile of query letters, and who tell writers how wonderful their queries are - may make the writer feel good about himself or herself ... but they're doing no one any favors.

I don't get it.

Loot, I Have Loot: Michael Koryta's SO COLD THE RIVER

Look what just arrived in my mailbox: an advanced reading copy of Michael Koryta's SO COLD THE RIVER. I've heard wonderful things about this book.

The publisher, Little Brown, has furnished a curious little widget, which supplies excerpts and other info.

You can't buy it yet, but you can pre-order it.

I'm trying hard not to succumb to it, since I have much work to do.

Wherein a Mom Takes Steps to Save Her Teenage Daughter

Vodkamom is a writer and blogger who writes screamingly funny stories of her kindergarten class; poignant remembrances of losing her mother and father at a young age; and Erma Bombeckesque tales of day-to-day life as a working mom with two teenage girls she calls Sassy and Bitchy, a just-entering-adolescence son she calls the Golden Boy, and a husband she calls Tightwad, all of whom she clearly dearly loves.

Recently Sassy revealed to her mother that she was being stalked by an older boy, and despite immediately doing all-the-right-things, problems continued. Now Vodkamom discusses some of the aftermath and mentions a book I sent her, THE GIFT OF FEAR by Gavin de Becker. (Yes, I know her real name - I didn't ship a book addressed to Vodka Mom, Smythe, Oregon - but for many reasons she remains anonymous.)

If I could give a copy of this book to every single female I know, I would - it has plenty of tips guys can use, too, but I think women by nature, programming, and physique are infinitely more vulnerable. Things I read in this book a decade ago are still with me, and may have saved me from some bad situations.

The basic message is Listen to your instincts, and de Becker does a superb job of getting the message across and telling you just what to do. I think about this book every time I get an odd vibe from someone in an elevator or at a party or walking toward me on the street - and then I wait for another elevator or I make sure someone walks me home or I cross the street. And may have just avoided a situation that could have taken my life in a very bad direction.

So go read Vodkamom. And buy a copy of THE GIFT OF FEAR and pass it on to a woman you know. You may have just saved her life.

I Love Having a Beta Reader in Australia

Because when it's 6 pm here in Vermont, it's 10 am in Australia. So I can email a manuscript in the evening, and in the morning when I awaken, it's back, read and commented on.

That's service. (My Aussie reader doesn't know terms like FedEx and RCMP, but that's okay. I didn't know her milk bar, stubby, and a few others.)

24 Agents Who are Now Probably Drowning in Queries

Writer's Digest has just published a list of 24 agents looking for clients. I've had dealings with two on this list, Ellen Pepus and Alexandra Machinist, and both seemed lovely.

This is just a starting point, of course. Read their websites, google them and find interviews with them, and look them up on AgentQuery.com. And don't firebomb agents - I'd contact no more than five at a time (ones who seem specifically right for your manuscript) - and always let agents know if another agent is reading your partial or full manuscript.

But review your query like crazy before sending it. Seriously. Have other writers read it. Read it aloud. Look at it on paper. This is your sales pitch, for yourself and your book. Your future career may depend on it.

This Red Heeler in Upland, California, Needs a Home

Australian Cattle Dogs - also known as blue heelers and red heelers, because, well, they nip at cattle's heels to herd them - are active, loyal, dedicated, and amazingly smart. My family and I have five and a half between us. Here's a lovely red heeler (possibly a mix) now available for adoption at Upland Animal Shelter at 860 E. 15th St., Upland, California. Note: ACDs also like to herd small children, which children don't usually react to well, so in general this breed is better for at least grade-school kids.

Adoption fee is $35, and spaying or neutering is required before adoption. Call 909-931-4185.

Really Important Advice for YA Writers (and Some Others)

I had a different topic planned for today, but found a post so brilliant I had to steal reference it.

Here are some things YA author Steph Bowe dislikes in young-adult books:

• a brooding, mysterious, emo boy is introduced. Girl instantaneously falls for this character for no apparent reason.
• there is a romance between a girl who is sixteen and a guy who is some indeterminable age over twenty-five. This is one million shades of wrong. In real life, this is illegal. And in books for teenagers, rarely are there relationships where the boy is younger.
• any girl bemoans her total lack of boobs. I. Just. Don't. Care. Again, I hear enough of this in real life. 
• anyone's problems are completely solved by falling in love with another person. I mean, are you trying to encourage teenage girls to be desperate and clingy or what?
  
• there is a very clear message that the author is trying to put across to teenagers. Like "PRACTICE ABSTINENCE" (I am already, damn it) or "DON'T DRINK" (ditto). You can write theme novels. But they have to be great novels in their own right, not just a vehicle for a moral.

I'd love to quote her entire posting but just go read it on her blog. (Disclosure: I'm one of Steph's beta readers and she's one of mine. She is also bound to giving me multiple signed copies of her first novel and naming her first-born after me. Just kidding. Sort of.)

The Rejectionist, rather more vehemently and specifically, discusses disliked trends in books (and, okay, attacks one in specific, which is maybe not totally cool, but I like the general themes here):

What we are heartily sick of ... are feeble and inept teenage-girl main characters, whose lives come into focus only through the addition of some melodramatic attraction to a charismatic male figure who seems to carry all the personality in the relationship.

The Rejectionist continues to say:

But love that is self-abnegating, all-consuming, and totally erases any kind of independence looks a lot more like domestic violence than fabulous romance, and doormats aren't actually very interesting as protagonists.

Young adult writers, pay attention. YA readers, listen up. And other writers, don't let sappy, self-destructive stuff (and ultimately lazy writing) creep into your own work. (We're all guilty of it at times. That's what that magic delete button is for.)

I'll leave you with what I find to be a very funny mix of clips from Buffy, the Vampire Slayer and Twilight. Draw your own conclusions.

I'm on Some Odd Twitter Lists

Admittedly, I'm not quite sure what Twitter lists are, but I discovered I am on some:   
   Writers
   Authors
   Bloggers
   Mystery
   Book club

The first three are obvious. And my novel coming out next year is sort of a mystery (suspense) and if you choose to read it in your book club, I would be delighted, so those make sense, too.

But some of the lists I'm on rather confuse me:
   Red-carpet-worthy ... Well, I may think so, but didn't know anyone else did.
   Nevergettingmarriedagain ... Maybe they are assuming this from the number of dogs I own and my writing habits.
   vpchristianauthors ... Nope. I used to edit books for a publisher that was consumed by bought by a Christian publisher (and then dissolved), but none of my books would qualify as Christian (though I never quite figured out that designation anyway).

Gonna have to try to figure out this list thing.

Cat Connor's Crime Thriller TERRORBYTE Launches Today

Welcome to crime thriller writer Cat Connor of New Zealand and her first stop on her book blog tour for her thriller TERRORBYTE, released today by Rebel e Publishers - currently available on Mobipocket and Amazon Kindle and soon to be available on iTunes. It's the second in a series featuring FBI agent Ellie Conway; the first was KILLERBYTE, available through Amazon Kindle, Mobipocket, and iTunes. And yes, there are more to come.

How did you, a New Zealander, decide to write novels about an FBI agent in the US?
I don’t think I actually set out to write about an FBI agent, it’s just how it happened. Ellie popped up and introduced herself and it snowballed from there. It’s not hard to write Ellie. She’s very familiar to me and her world is a comfortable one. I had no problem with the setting or her as a character despite me being a Kiwi. Guess that’s just how I roll. (Not that I roll much now my desk chair is on the carpet in the living room and not the dining room floor…)

What are some of the Kiwisms you have had to take out of your manuscript?
Actually the only term I can think of that is a Kiwism that I removed was "slip," which I replaced with landslide. I’m sure you can think of a few, Sara! I tend to use Kiwisms in my blogs, which cause a few raised eyebrows at times. Just think of it as the language of the future, because that’s where I am. The future.

[Note from Sara: I remember complaining about fringe (for bangs), ploughed, Mills and Boon, and A4 paper. And, oh yeah, having a character order a hot dog at Wendy's. Because as every self-respecting American knows, there are no hot dogs at Wendy's.]

Tell us a little about your crime thriller series and your new novel, TERRORBYTE.
This is almost my favorite topic of conversation. My series is written first person, so it really is all about Ellie from within her head.

The first novel, KILLERBYTE, introduced Ellie Conway. Not many people collect death threats when in a chat room but Ellie does. She is a magnet for trouble - a killer began to leave dismembered bodies for her to find and implicated family members and even colleagues. Not only is she a trouble magnet (with a wicked sense of humor) but she lives with the very real fear that she may develop a mental illness like her mother, and there are moments that push her to the very brink.

In TERRORBYTE Ellie is now a Supervising Special Agent with her own team. She’s newly married and the cofounder of The Butterfly Foundation (which she developed with her husband to help the children of mentally ill parents); they use a bestselling book of their poetry to draw attention to the plight of children. Ellie finds herself SSA on a new case with hidden depths. A terrifying web emerges that pulls in The Butterfly Foundation, terrorists, a Russian FSB officer, a poem written by Ellie, an Army base in Northern Virginia, the posed bodies of many murdered women, and missing kids.

When the safest place to be is in the midst of gangland - you know things are bad.

What is your own background, and how are you able to write so convincingly about police work?
I worked with police for five years (and my grandfather was a police officer for 35 years). I've also studied for my private investigator's license - don't get me started on that. Let's just say until there's a law change there is no point being a PI; I can do more regarding surveillance as a regular citizen! I also know a lot of cops in various countries and they're really good at explaining things and giving pointers.

You have three children at home and are a full-time mom who seems to do a lot of home cooking – what are your greatest challenges about working writing into your daily life?
This week we have four kids at home! Life is good.

Sick kids pose the greatest challenge. As long as everyone is at school (and/or healthy) then it all works quite well. But kindergarten is driving me crazy. [Note from Sara: this kindergarten is two hours a day, what us Yanks might call preschool.] It eats into my writing time by ten hours a week. Which is some ways is worse than having a sick kid. There are no coffee bars or, well, anything anywhere near the kindy – so I either come home and get a whole half hour to do basically nothing or stay and get harassed by 30 three- and four-year-olds! Either way, no writing happens. That’s a big problem this month as I’m doing NaNoWriMo. (On top of having a new book out this month and doing some promo work… ) And The Boy Wonder’s [teenage son] final exams start next week, plus we have two birthdays in the next week!

I can count on one hand the number of times we have take-out in a year. Cooking, meals, keeping the household running smoothly, and making sure I get time with the kids – all slips and slides around my work time most days. I’m very lucky to be able to be home with the kids, and to write. There are days when everything takes a backseat to writing, though, and everyone copes!

Well, almost everyone, the cat gets a tad pissy but she has the rabbit to keep her company.

Do you outline your novels before starting, or just have a rough idea where they are going?
I have no freaking clue where the story will go or even who will be in it. Seriously, how the story unfolds is as much of a surprise to me as it is to you. I find it better that way. I’m one of those people who can’t write if they know how the story goes. Not only do I not outline but I don’t talk about the story. I write beginning to end, and it all works out. I tried outlining once, but once I knew who did it – I lost interest in writing the story.

You modeled Mac after your neighbor Kane (pictured at left, adorned with fake blood for shooting the TERRORBYTE trailer)  – who, if anyone, is Ellie Conway based on?
You’re not the first person who has thought that Kane is the model for Mac. Not true. Kane plays Mac in the trailers BUT the character Mac existed well before Kane became our neighbor. Mac was based on a friend of mine in Fairfax, Virginia, with a smidge of MacGyver and Mark Harmon tossed in. Kane is like Mac in many ways, which is great because he’s right next door and such a good sport when it comes to being covered in blood and filmed and he’s also awesome at being Mac online. (He’s on Twitter.)

Ellie isn’t based on or modeled on anyone in particular. She came to me one day and I knew she’d be an awesome character to write. And she really is – there is a little of me in her at times; we share the same sense of humor.

You film your own promotional videos – do your neighbors ever think it’s odd when you have (fake) blood in your driveway or bodies stuffed in your car’s trunk?
I don’t know if they think it’s odd but it was certainly in very bad taste once. The day after the house next door became a crime scene (chick next door stabbed her boyfriend) we were covering body parts in blood inside black polythene bags and stuffing them under a car in our driveway.

Shoving [husband] Chris (covered in blood) into the trunk of our car at the local park caused a lot of interested onlookers. I was waiting for someone to call police, but it all went well.

Kane staggering bleeding by the river garnered some attention. We all had a wee laugh over the blood-covered stones we left behind. Many dogs were at the river with their owners that day – our blood is chocolate flavored. You can imagine the thought of the owners following their dogs to discover they’re apparently licking pools of blood!

I know you hate em dashes – what else do you dislike about the editorial process?
Em dashes are the devil's work! Actually I really enjoy the editorial process, it’s fun. It’s a helluva lot easier than writing the book initially. Plus I’m really lucky that my editor (Jayne Southern) has a wicked sense of humor and leaves me little notes in my work that make me laugh out loud. She is also great at pulling me up and not letting me get away with lazy writing, and I drive her mad with Ellie’s penchant for thinking about slapping people (Mac) upside the head and my refusal to remove the occasional phrase! I’ve also been really fortunate to have a fabulous friend (that would be you, Sara) who tells me with utmost honesty when things aren’t working or need more work, and sometimes I listen … sometimes I don’t.

[Note from Sara:Yes, I had the privilege of being a reader for this novel, and yes, I'm blunt when I think something is all wrong - I think at one point I yelled YOU CANNOT HAVE THIS HAPPEN and proceeded to detail all the reasons why. And that time you listened.]

Describe your perfect writing day (this can be completely fictional).
My perfect writing day. That would begin with a really yummy breakfast – waffles and ice-cream with maple syrup. I would get the WHOLE day to write with no interruptions at all. The best thing would be no housework, laundry, or anything waiting for me when I’m done. I think my perfect day would include fairies and pixies to do all the chores – because having another person in the house to do things while I’m working would be too distracting. There would also have to be endless fresh coffee and LOUD music. Bon Jovi is my writing music of choice.

What question do you wish interviewers would ask you – or not ask you?
Now this is a tricksy question. I’ve come back to this one a few times now. There isn’t anything I mind being asked. My favorite questions are ones that give me the scope to be me.

Thanks for having me, Sara, I’ve had a wonderful time here today.

Cat's looking for a few more blogs to visit the month, so if you'd like to host her on your blog, you can leave a comment here or reach her via Twitter, her blog, or email.  

When My Ship Comes in

Things I'm gonna do when my ship comes in (or, more specifically, when my book advance arrives):

• Buy the lovely new iMac computer and backup unit I've been eying ever since I knew I had a book deal. Maybe throw in one of those iTouch things that lets you text and access internet.
  
• Send a scholarship donation to Squaw Valley Writers Conference, which is pretty much responsible for me figuring out that I could write fiction. Politely try to stipulate that it goes to someone who is not an MFA student (I am sure there are some lovely MFA students out there, but I suffered mightily at the hands of the ones at Squaw Valley and don't want to enable that happening to another non-MFA writer).
• Put a new roof on the house. I'd set aside funds for this, but until my advance arrives, I'm not spending it. It can weather another winter. I think.
  
• Buy new sports socks. Replacing socks that function seems frivolous, but I'm going to relegate every white sock (okay, some are no longer quite white) to the rag bag and buy an enormous batch of white socks that are all exactly the same. No more laundry day sock-matching frustration.
• Buy more of my friends' books. In hardback. At independent bookstores.
  

And I'm so looking forward to it.

Contest: Giveaway of Stephen King's UNDER THE DOME

R.K. Charron is having a book giveaway - just comment on this post to enter, and Tweet or post for extra entries. Closes midnight of American Thanksgiving, Nov. 26, and it's open worldwide.

This collector's edition of UNDER THE DOME, Stephen King's tour-de-force new novel about a Maine town suddenly cut off by an invisible, impenetrable Dome, has a belly band around the jacket, a stamped case, four-color printed end papers, 27 part title illustrations of characters in the book drawn by renowned New Yorker cartoonist Matthew Diffee, and a ribbon marker. The edition also contains a deck of 27 special collector's cards of the Diffee caricatures. Printed on specialty paper, this publication is limited to 25,000 copies.

To Quote David Pogue, I'm in Love

Imagine a magic button on your browser toolbar that makes all the blinking, dancing, annoying ads disappear from the webpage you're trying to read. So that the text is clear and easy to read. And you can pre-select its size, style, and margin size. And it's free.

It's called Readability, from a company called Arc90. It may have just saved you several small daily headaches. I've just tried it out, and it's fantastic.

Thank you, David Pogue. You know I'm your number one groupie.

Your Adoptable Dogs of the Week: Dallas & Denver

Here are Dallas and Denver at the Williamson Country Animal Shelter, in Franklin, Tennessee. They are 11-month-old Australian Cattle Dog mixes - shelter workers say they are shy at first, but very friendly. Adoption fee $65, which pretty much includes everything. I LOVE Australian Cattle Dogs, and if I didn't have an absurd number of dogs already, I'd be down there scooping these guys up.

Lucy and Monty came from here - it's a great place, near Nashville (never mind that it was wishful thinking when they told me they thought Monty was 3 - he grew another 25 pounds, so he was probably more like, well, 1). Email wcacangels@yahoo.com, call 615-790-5590, or go visit at 138 Claude Yates Dr., Franklin, Tennessee (next to Franklin High School on Hillsboro Road).

If you can't adopt, please consider donating a Kuranda dog bed to the shelter.

Why You Need to Follow up on Contest Entries

A friend's entry posted yesterday in the Secret Agent contest, so I finally got around to emailing congratulations to another writer whose entry last month garnered a partial request from agent Rachelle Gardner at WordServe Literary. Which, if you're not a writer or not involved in an agent hunt, you may not realize is a Really Big Deal. And Rachelle may just be the perfect agent for this particular novel.

But the writer had no idea - she has been insanely busy, and assumed she would be notified if she won or placed. (Nope, you have to check the listing of winners and runners-up.)

I knew she had been selected only because I'd glanced at the list and recognized the title of her manuscript (her name wasn't listed). I had met this writer online back in May when I gave her a registration to a writing conference I couldn't attend, and helped with her query letter and partial.

You can imagine that once I told her, she reacted, and reacted fast. 

Life turns on little things: her responding to my conference registration giveaway (actually her husband did as well, on her behalf), my reading her partial and remembering the title (which, ironically, I'd suggested changing, as it rhymes with a certain movie title), my emailing her congrats yesterday.

I have a really good feeling about this.

Wherein a YA Author Gives Damn Good Writing Advice

Want to know how to learn to write well and land an agent? Steph Bowe explains it pretty well.

Among other things, she says This is all that matters: Writing a publishable novel that you send to the right people, and also having the maturity to be able to take constructive criticism and realise that everything can be improved, and it's not an insult upon you or your writing, just someone who wants to help you to improve your work.

She also says I got some lovely rejections though, with nice feedback notes. Do you like the phrase 'lovely rejection'? It's like a boy saying to me, "Steph, you're beautiful and funny and all, but I can't go out with you because you remind me of my grandma."

I'd like to add that a sense of humor is pretty much required in the publishing world.

Easy Contest for Free YA Books

Just enter a comment before tomorrow, Nov. 3, over on Susan Adrian's blog. Titles offered include
LOOKING FOR ALASKA, John Green
EVERMORE & BLUE MOON, Alyson Noel
CROSS MY HEART AND HOPE TO SPY, Ally Carter
THE DISREPUTABLE HISTORY OF FRANKIE LANDAU-BANKS, E. Lockhart
REBEL ANGELS, Libba Bray
THE HUNGER GAMES, Suzanne Collins
SOMEONE LIKE YOU, Sarah Dessen