Sara Hantz » 2008

Archive for March, 2008

March 29, 2008 • 7 Comments

A little bit of a catch up……

My very good friend (and amazingly brilliant writer) Emily Gee is a double finalist in the RITAs with her book Thief With No Shadow WAHOOOOOO!!!!! And she’s now decided to go to San Fran with us (Amanda and me). How exciting is that…….. watch out San Fran!!!! There’s a huge contingent from NZ/Aus going….. and be warned…. we’ll be noisy!! We’re also cheering on Anna Campbell who’s also a double RITA finalist, and Tracey who finaled in the Golden Heart.

Other news….. in two sleeps (so who’s counting) I’m off for a week to Australia. To the Sunshine Coast… we’re staying at Sunshine Beach which is the other side of Noosa National Park….. so we’ll be on a koala bear hunt again. I can’t wait. Motel life is 24/7 and I haven’t had a day off since August. Worse for DH he hasn’t had a day off since last May. Anyway….. I’ve been collecting books to read…. I’ve got about 20 but I’m thinking I’ll only take 10… just in case I have to actually do some talking!!!!

So, no blogging from me for about 10 days……….. but I’ll be thinking of you all (what??? you don’t believe me????)

Posted by Sara Hantz in Uncategorized @ 8:52 am

March 26, 2008 • Comments

If you hop over to Teen Fiction Cafe Melissa Walker and I are doing a joint post about the NYPL List. Melissa attended and I just dreamed about it.

Are there are pics too. I’m very excited!!!!

Posted by Sara Hantz in Uncategorized @ 7:24 pm

March 24, 2008 • 2 Comments

This is my first tour with Girlfriends Cyber Circuit and I’m so thrilled to be touring E Lockhart’s The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks. It’s an amazing book and has had some fabulous reviews, as you’ll see below.

Frankie Landau-Banks at age 14:
Debate Club.
Her father’s “bunny rabbit.”
A mildly geeky girl attending a highly competitive boarding school.

Frankie Landau-Banks at age 15:
A knockout figure.
A sharp tongue.
A chip on her shoulder.
And a gorgeous new senior boyfriend: the supremely goofy, word-obsessed Matthew Livingston.

Frankie Laundau-Banks.
No longer the kind of girl to take “no” for an answer.
Especially when “no” means she’s excluded from her boyfriend’s all-male secret society.
Not when her ex boyfriend shows up in the strangest of places.
Not when she knows she’s smarter than any of them.
When she knows Matthew’s lying to her.
And when there are so many, many pranks to be done.

Frankie Landau-Banks, at age 16:
Possibly a criminal mastermind.

This is the story of how she got that way.

“Big ideas are an essential part of the fun in this sparkling tour de force…. Lockhart (Dramarama; The Boyfriend List) dexterously juggles a number of smart and tantalizing themes—class and privilege, feminism and romance, wordplay and thought, friendship and loyalty—and combines the pacing of a mystery with writing that realizes settings and characters, large and small, with an artist’s sure hand….An exuberant, mischievous story, it scores its points memorably and lastingly.”
– Publishers Weekly, starred review

“Lockhart has transcended the chick-lit genre… A funny feminist manifesto that will delight the anti–Gossip Girl gang.”
– Kirkus, starred review

“An empowered female hero like Frankie is a rare and refreshing find. She is the ultimate feminist role model for teens: a girl with guts and imagination who’s brave enough to take on the “old boy’s club.”
– School Library Journal, starred review

“Lockhart fashions a thoroughly enjoyable tale of a good girl who aches to be bad….Fans will applaud at the conclusion as Frankie strides into the sunset, metaphorically bloody but unbowed.”
– VOYA

“Lockhart’s wholly engaging narrative, filled with wordplay, often reads like a clever satire about the capers about the entitled, interwoven with elements of a mystery. But the story’s expertly timed comedy also has deep undercurrents. Lockhart creates a unique, indelible character in Frankie, whose oddities only make her more realistic, and teens will be galvanized by her brazen action and her passionate, immediate questions about gender and power, individuals and institutions, and how to fall in love without losing herself.”
– Booklist, starred review

Bio:

E. Lockhart is the author of The Boyfriend List and its sequel, The Boy Book; Fly on the Wall; Dramarama; and the upcoming How to Be Bad, co-written with Lauren Myracle and Sarah Mlynowski. In stores March 25th is The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks. Visit her on the web at www.theboyfriendlist.com — and soon (once the new web design is finished) at www.e-lockhart.com.

Posted by Sara Hantz in Uncategorized @ 9:08 pm

March 20, 2008 • 11 Comments

Every year, the New York Public Library puts out a list called BOOKS FOR THE TEEN AGE. To quote the NYPL: “This list, now in its 79th year of publication, selects the best of the previous year’s publishing for teenagers, ages 12 to 18. All the titles chosen have been read and reviewed by young adult librarians and recommended for this special publication.”

I have just found out that The Second Virginity of Suzy Green has made this years list. The list is available all over the US. I’m soooooooooooo excited. And I was invited to attend the ceremony in NY this Saturday……….. NZ to NY in a couple of days time… I wish…

And hurray for Melissa Walker, as she too has made the list with Violet on the Runway!

Posted by Sara Hantz in Uncategorized @ 7:00 am

March 17, 2008 • 3 Comments

Emily Marshall!!!!!

Congratulations Emily, you’re now the proud owner of Melissa Walker’s Violet by Design.

Please let me have your address and I will forward this to Melissa so she can send you the book.

Thanks to everyone for taking part.

Posted by Sara Hantz in Uncategorized @ 6:12 am

March 11, 2008 • 28 Comments

I’m thrilled to be interviewing Melissa Walker again now the second in her Violet series has been released. I LOVED Violet on the Runway and Violet by Design is just as fabulous. For the chance to win a copy of Violet by Design leave a comment here or on my Myspace blog.
I’m very excited to be reading the second book about Violet. How does writing the second in a series differ from writing the first?

It’s definitely a new skill because you want the second book to stand alone, but also pick up moments from the first. I didn’t want to summarize too much (I remember always skipping the chapter 2 summaries in the Babysitters’ Club series), so I tried to slip references to the past into the first few chapter during moments that were also moving the story forward, if that makes any sense.

What techniques did you employ to ensure the first book flowed into the second and the second leads into the third, yet still enabling the books to stand alone?

I tried to keep each book a separate adventure, with a hint at more life to come. If you think about it, all books end without a real ending. There may be some resolution, but the characters (at least some of them) usually live on in fictionland, we just stop following them as readers.

Weight gain is always an issue with models, and Violet comes across this. How do you deal with this without coming across as moralizing?

Well, I do hope my dealings with it are successful. In a book about the fashion world, weight issues are impossible to ignore, so I had to let Violet deal with the issue and figure it out in her own, sometimes flawed, human way. I think the fact that she doesn’t have the issue quite clear in her head makes it less of a moralizing moment and more of a true gray area that girls encounter.

Without giving too much away, what exciting things can we expect for Violet in book three?

Violet meets some great college friends and locks horns with her agent Angela, who turns on the pressure as usual. This year, Violet has a fun city internship to juggle, and of course, there’s her old friend Roger…

Lastly, do you have anything else (after Violet) in the pipeline we can look forward to?

I’ve got a couple of ideas that aren’t even worth mentioning yet, but I definitely hope to have another book on the radar soon!
Melissa Walker is a writer who has worked as ELLEgirl Features Editor and Seventeen Prom Editor. She grew up in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and has a BA in English from Vassar College. She really believes in the motto “write what you know.” Well, except for the whole supermodel thing. Swear!

Posted by Sara Hantz in Uncategorized @ 8:45 am