#tothegirls2016

Last year, author Courtney Summers posted:

"I write about girls.

"I write about girls because every girl deserves the opportunity to pick up a book and see herself in its pages.

"I write about girls because girls, and their stories, matter.

"It's my way of letting them know."

On April 14th, 2015, she posted this with the hashtag #tothegirls to tell girls all over the world that they are seen, heard, and loved. People all over the world chimed in on social media, posting messages of support and encouragement, sharing thoughts and quotes both funny and profound.

Today, January 21st, it's time to spread the word again. Use the hashtag #tothegirls2016 along with your personal message of support and encouragement on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, Instagram, your blog, your vlog, wherever you see fit. Write a note on your wipe-off board on the door of your dorm room or stick a Post-It note on your family's fridge or bathroom mirror. Share the message, and share the love.

For more information, visit http://tothegirls2016.tumblr.com and follow Courtney Summers @courtney_s on Twitter.

A few thoughts from me to the girls in 2016 and beyond: 

You are awesome.
You can do this.
Just breathe.
Just believe.

Best Books of 2015

So many books, so little time! Here are some of the books that I really enjoyed in 2015, listed alphabetically by title. Click on the titles to read my reviews:

Alex as Well by Alyssa Brugman
All the Rage by Courtney Summers
Dead Ringers by Christopher Golden
A Deafening Silence in Heaven by Thomas E. Sniegoski
Edgewater by Courtney Sheinmel
The Game of Love and Death by Martha Brockenbrough
Saint Anything by Sarah Dessen
Sounds Like Me: My Life (so far) in Song by Sara Bareilles
Tin Men by Christopher Golden
The Unlikely Hero of Room 13B by Teresa Toten


Check out my full list: Best Books of 2015 - as posted at my blog, Bildungsroman.


What were some of your favorite books from 2015? Leave the titles in the comments below!

Story Secrets: FALL FOR ANYTHING by Courtney Summers

Have you ever noticed a book popping up over and over in the book blogs you read? Not necessarily the splashy one, but the one everybody keeps saying is So Good.

That's what I kept seeing about Courtney Summers' book, SOME GIRLS ARE. I read it. And it was so good. She has a way of capturing power dynamics and making them an intense, heart-wrenching experience - not to mention a page-turner.

So I'm really looking forward to her latest, FALL FOR ANYTHING, which comes out December 21st! (You can preorder it on IndieBound or Amazon.) And even more, I'm thrilled to welcome Courtney Summers to the blog today to chat about her story secrets...

Welcome, Courtney!


*****

FALL FOR ANYTHING is about a girl who is consumed by the question of why her (ex) famous photographer killed himself. She meets Culler Evans, a former photography student of her father's, and an instant and dangerous attraction begins. Culler just might hold the key to the mystery surrounding her father's death... but are some questions better left unanswered?

Holly Cupala: We'd love to hear the story behind FALL FOR ANYTHING. How did you come up with the idea?

Courtney: I've always been fascinated with grief and loss, particularly now that I've lost people who I've been extremely close to in my life, so that's pretty much where the idea stemmed from. I wanted to explore the space that kind of loss leaves behind and the lengths we'll go to so we can feel whole again.





Click here for more about Courtney and FALL FOR ANYTHING...

~Holly Cupala

Some Girls Are: What Did You Think of Regina?

This week's focus is on Courtney Summers's Some Girls Are. Courtney writes books that embody this month's theme: Resilience. Regina is a formerly popular girl who's been ousted by her so-called best friends. The brutal immediacy of Some Girls Are is riveting, and the emotional honesty at its core makes accompanying Regina on her journey a truly moving experience.

For discussion: If you've read Some Girls Are, what did you think of Regina? Like Sam in Before I Fall, she's sometimes hard to like because of her past actions.

And, in general, what books have you read where the main character grew on you over time?

Featured Title: SOME GIRLS ARE, by Courtney Summers

Full disclosure: Courtney Summers, along with fellow readergirlz diva Melissa Walker, is one of twenty one authors including yours truly who've banded together to promote our own and others' contemporary YA fiction. Our blog is called The Contemps, and we while spotlight our own contemp titles releasing in 2011, most of all, our aim is to celebrate the value of "keeping it real" for young adult readers. BUT I've been a huge fan of Courtney's writing long before we "met" via the blogosphere. In fact, students in my writing workshop have cited her debut novel, CRACKED UP TO BE, as one of the strongest-voiced narratives they've read of late, so I was thrilled to pick up SOME GIRLS ARE over the summer. The book did not disappoint.

Climbing to the top of the social ladder is hard--falling from it is even harder. Regina Afton used to be a member of the Fearsome Fivesome, an all-girl clique both feared and revered by the students at Hallowell High... until vicious rumors about her and her best friend's boyfriend start going around. Now Regina's been "frozen out" and her ex-best friends are out for revenge. If Regina was guilty, it would be one thing, but the rumors are far from the terrifying truth and the bullying is getting more intense by the day. She takes solace in the company of Michael Hayden, a misfit with a tragic past who she herself used to bully. Friendship doesn't come easily for these onetime enemies, and as Regina works hard to make amends for her past, she realizes Michael could be more than just a friend... if threats from the Fearsome Foursome don't break them both first.

If you haven't read Courtney's work, I urge you to check it out, stat - no sophomore slump for this writer! But first, here's what Courtney has to say about resilience:

I really love the definition of resilience. Check it out (from dictionary.com):

1. the power or ability to return to the original form, position, etc.,
after being bent, compressed, or stretched; elasticity.

2. ability to recover readily from illness, depression, adversity, or the like; buoyancy.

Resilience is something that is never far from my mind when I write my novels. My characters kind of need to be resilient, what with the things I put them through. Some Girls Are was a novel that moved forward due to the resiliency of certain characters. Without Michael's ability to get up every day after the death of his mother and both Liz and Regina's determination to overcome the torment heaped upon them by their peers, there wouldn't be much of a book. I think all of my books would be A LOT shorter if my characters weren't at all resilient!

And THEN I was thinking resilience is also something that was never far from my mind in my pursuit to become published. You get rejected a lot in the writing game, and not always in the nicest or most encouraging ways. You HAVE to be resilient to put your work out there and take the rejections on the chin, and then send your stuff back out there again--all without any guarantees. The resiliency of my writing peers was an inspiration. Watching them put their work out there and keep plugging away in spite of any rejection they might have received kept me going too. It still does. Resiliency is also, apparently, contagious! So I was thinking we should maybe petition all dictionaries to include its contagiousness in their definition of the word?

I am drafting up a proposal now.

I love that so much! As a writer, we do face so much rejection, and knowing that others somehow find the resilience to persist can be just the inspiration that we need with our own work. Thanks so much for joining us, Courtney!

So, readers - whose resilience inspires YOU?

Courtney Summers on Unlikeable Female Protagonists

The amazing Courtney Summers just wrote a great post "on unlikeable female protagonists", and I had to share a bit of it here (though you really must go read the whole thing).

Basically, when people responded to one of her novels saying they loved the guy protagonist, who was not exactly a sweetheart, but hated the girl protagonist, also not sweet (they couldn't connect with her, she was cold, etc), she started feeling... annoyed. Courtney says:

"I did a lot of navel-gazing soul-searching and I just kept getting annoyed because my thoughts decided to circle in this way: WHY DO GIRLS HAVE TO BE NICE ALL THE TIME THEY CAN BE MEAN AND ANGRY AND GENDER STEREOTYPING MUCH ARGH. Just. Like. That. I was bothered that the behaviours that are supported, loved, celebrated or romanticized in male characters would be, I thought, rejected in female characters because we have the perception that girls are sugar and spice and everything nice (er, not that I think wanting your significant other to DIE is an inherently male characteristic). "We are HARD on girls."

The whole post is fantastic, and it reminded me of this video clip I filmed of Libba Bray last year discussing something similar.



Let's let female characters be compelling -- must they always be likeable? Thoughts?

Cover Stories: Cracked Up to Be and Some Girls Are by Courtney Summers

Courtney Summers did a double Cover Story with me this week.

First, she talks about her debut, Cracked Up to Be. I loved this book, btw.

Here's Courtney:

"When I found out St. Martin's was going to publish Cracked Up to Be, I was really eager to see what they'd make of the cover. I secretly wished that:

1) there would be a girl on it and her face would be obscured, because I like covers that leave character's faces to the imagination and

2) it would be awesome (what author doesn't want that, though!)

"When I got the first cover for Cracked Up to Be, I loved it. It had a faceless girl laying on some bleachers set against a field and I thought it was awesome, so I was 2 for 2! Unfortunately, *cue ominous music*, it was not meant to be...

Read the rest of the Cracked Up to Be Cover Story.

Courtney also shared the Cover Story for Some Girls Are:

"Some Girls Are's publication timeline was similar to that of my first novel, Cracked Up to Be, so when the time I figured I'd get my cover rolled around... and passed me by... I was all kinds of nervous and excited. And then a little more time passed...

"AND THEN when I thought I'd explode of anticipation, I got to see a rejected version of the cover. I can't show it, but it featured a pair of (faceless!) girls back to back against a chainlink fence. I liked the concept, but the models struck me as too young and they were wearing pink and green pastel colours which gave the overall feel of the cover one of happiness and happiness has no place in Some Girls Are -- just misery and mean girl brutality and all that fun stuff!..."

The full Cover Story is up on Barnes and Noble's Unabashedly Bookish blog.

Enjoy both!