readergirlz is a literacy and social media project for teens, awarded the National Book Foundation's Innovations in Reading Prize. The rgz blog serves as a depot for news and YA reviews from industry professionals and teens. As volunteers return full force to their own YA writing, the organization continues to hold one initiative a year to impact teen literacy. All are welcome to "like" us on Facebook!
I'm super thrilled to be celebrating the release of my 12th (!) original novel, Amity, a haunted house story told in two separate perspectives, ten years apart. Diva Melissa was gracious enough to offer up a Cover Story slot to me, so here we go!
1.Did you have an idea in mind for your cover as
you were proposing/writing the book? If so, what did it look like?
I
think we all always knew Amity was
going to have an image of a haunted house on the cover. It’s iconic and classic
for a reason, right? We may have tossed around the idea of focusing in on one
aspect of a house – a window, a door – or even doing something more modern and
all type, but I don’t think any of those concepts were seriously on the table.
2.Did your publisher ask for your input on the cover design
before the art dept started working? If so, what input did you give?
My editor at the time showed me an early mock-up with the
image they were planning to use. But at the time, she did make it clear that
everyone in-house was very enthusiastic about the image, which, as I know from
my own days on the editorial side of the desk, is pretty crucial and not to be
ignored.
3.What did you think the first time you saw the original
version of your cover?
I
liked the general idea and I really liked
that Egmont was truly capturing that straightforward, “HORROR novel,” genre
vibe. My main concern was only that the house itself looked nothing like the
building that’s described in the book, or the original “Amityville” house.
Specifically the half-moon windows are mentioned a whole bunch in the book, and
are familiar to anyone who knows anything about the original Amityville crime. But
I can appreciate that a strong cover can often outweigh the value of a literal
cover. We talked a bit about how the house in the mock-up looked small and not
quite menacing enough, and my editor assured me it would be tweaked.
And
it was! And it’s amazing and perfect!
As
you can see, the final cover is the same original image. But with the color
adjusted, a new font, and lots of creepy blood dripped, the terror factor is
amped way, way up. I could seriously marry this new final cover, and I’ve been
thrilled with readers’ reactions to it! The general consensus seems to be that
it’s insanely scary. Which to me translates to: mission accomplished!
7 Things You Don't Know about readergirlz diva Micol Ostow
1. I've been an avid horror reader my whole life, but it took 30 books under my belt (including ghostwriting gigs) before I was ready to try a scary story of my own. That book, Amity, releases this August! (Pre-order your copy now!)
2. I have a French Bulldog named Bridget Jones -- after the book, not the movie! You'd be surprised how many people totally forget that the book came first! Grr.
4. I got my start in kidlit writing as an editor. The very first book I edited on my own was celebrity bio of Jim Carrey.
5. I recently sold a chapter book series called LOUISE TRAPEZE to Random House. The only thing more terrifying than writing horror will be trying to conquer the 5-7 year-old market!
6. The house I live in in Brooklyn is over 100 years old and thus the floors are all slanted. My daughter will grow up with no true concept of physics or gravity.
7. I ran the NYC marathon in 2003 (26.2 miles). These days, a typical run for me is 3 miles or so. And when I'm not running, I am the most sedentary creature around. Just one of the reasons I love reading so much!
Just grabbed iheartdaily's newsletter this morning and was delighted to see our own Micol Ostow's Family recommended! Woot!
Be sure to check it out as well as the other two shivery suggestions, Dreamland Social Club, by Tara Altebrando, and Imaginary Girls by Nova Ren Suma. Must reads!
A chilling, lyrical novel of cult love loosely based on the Manson Family murders, Family is an unflinching look at troubled girls, tainted dependencies, and the dangerous ties that bind.
Watch the trailer with us (if you dare) and look for blood-splattered bookshelves this week. Family is here!
Our own divas Melissa Walker and Micol Ostow are two of twenty-one authors Embracing the Real in contemporary YA lit at The Contemps, a fantastic new group author site celebrating the real, the gritty, and the wonderful in YA.
Their mission is simple:
We are passionate about realistic fiction because these are the books that remind us we're not alone in this real world. Our mission is simple - to spotlight contemporary fiction for young adults through blog posts, author events, and (over)sharing from our teen years.
Here is the full list of authors - lots of names you know, and names you want to know:
Check out their challenge, going on NOW through November 15th: read 18 of their 21 books, and you can win all 21! All the deets are at http://www.thecontemps.com/. Congrats to writers passionate about YA!
You know her as our rgz NYC HOST, but we are announcing Micol Ostow as our newest rgz diva!
Micol has graciously stepped up to be our newest author liaison. It's an important role at rgz which brings all the guests to visit with you. Here's a little more about Micol:
Micol Ostow is half Puerto Rican, half Jewish, half reader, half writer, half chocolate, half peanut butter. When she is under deadline, she is often half asleep.
Micol has written over 40 published works for readers of all ages. Her novel EMILY GOLDBERG LEARNS TO SALSA was named a New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age, and her latest release, SO PUNK ROCK (and Other Ways to Disappoint Your Mother), was chosen as a Sydney Taylor Notable book for teens and an Independent Publishing Award silver medalist.
Micol received her MFA in Writing For Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts in January, 2009, and currently teaches a popular young adult writing workshop through Media Bistro. She lives in NYC with her husband, and a persnickety French Bulldog named Bridget Jones. Her next novel, FAMILY, is a verse novel loosely based on the Manson murders of 1969, and will be published by Egmont USA in May 2011. Micol also blogs with other writers of contemporary young adult fiction over at www.thecontemps.com
Give a warm welcome and thanks to Micol our rgz NYC HOST and diva!
Hi and happy August from your NYC Host, Micol! I’m enjoying some quiet writing time upstate this month, but I wanted to share a few recent events and thoughts.
Everyone knows that readergirlz are some of the brightest, most creative and daring girls around! Have you ever wondered whether your creative passion could someday become a fulfilling career? I never imagined that one day my job would be “teen book author,” but I’m sure glad it is!
One person who never had any doubt about following her dream is jewelry designer Katharine Sise. She launched her own business a few years after college and has written a book about how to pursue a career in a creative industry. Creative Girl: The Ultimate Guide for Turning Talent and Creativity into a Real Career comes out on August 24th and is an amazing resource for any girl who is determined to chart a creative course. Check it out!
If you’re in the market for fiction this month, have a look at Finny by debut author Justin Kramon. Finny follows the titular protagonist through a quirk-filled girlhood and adolescence (boarding school! bad influences! boyfriends!) and on through an emotional journey to womanhood. It’s comedy, tragedy, and artful characterization at its best. I had the pleasure of reading with Justin at local NYC indie McNally Jackson, and have been tearing through the book ever since.
And finally, if you’re a fan of realistic, contemporary young adult fiction, keep an ear to the ground for the Contemps! Who are the Contemps? Well, I can’t tell you just yet, but you can follow their tweets for right now, and stay tuned – on August 17th, all will be revealed!
Our rgz NYC Host, Micol Ostow, recently attended an exclusive event for the forthcoming Francine Pascal book Sweet Valley Confidential. In this novel, the famous Wakefield twins are all grown up. What has happened to Jessica and Elizabeth in the ten years since they graduated from Sweet Valley High? You'll have to read the book - which comes out in March 2011 - to find out.
In the meantime, Micol picked up something to tide you over: a Team Jessica T-shirt! It's a size large (L) in juniors, so it runs small. See the picture below:
Want to win a Team Jessica T-shirt? Leave a comment below and tell us why you're on Team Jessica or Team Elizabeth!
Update: The winner is Erika Lynn! Thanks to everyone who entered the contest.
Your NYC HOST, Micol, is here today! Yay! Here she is:
I can’t believe that summer only officially began last week – here in NYC, we’ve been getting bookish for ages now – and that’s a good thing! I have tons and tons to fill you in on:
Book Expo 2010 kicked off nearly a month ago, and in addition to taking in major info overload on the Expo floor, I also attended a Meet the Booksellers party at one of my fave indie bookstores, Books of Wonder. While there I chatted with author Shani Petroff, who was days away from turning in the third book in her Bedeviled series. Can’t wait to read it!
I had the chance to break from the convention for coffee with Andrew Karre, the brilliant editor who first acquired Punk Rock over at Flux. Andrew is now working as Editorial Director for CarolrhodaLab Books ], and his launch list – due out in fall – looks edgy and intense and all things awesome!
Later that week, it was back to Books of Wonder for a panel featuring chapter book authors and illustrators.
I had a blast hearing about the interplay between text and art, and fell in love with the new series, Frankly, Frannie, about a little girl who wants nothing more than to have a real, grown-up job. Anyone hiring? Franny is written by A.J. Stern, pictured here with her extended publishing family.
Every month in NYC, author/editor/wunderkind David Levithan morganizes a Teen Author Reading Night at the New York Public Library, and finally, in June, I was able to attend! So many amazing new releases, so little time...but let me tell you, I’m getting my hands on Little Blog on the Prairie, by Cathleen Davitt, stat! (I never did quite outgrow my Laura Ingalls Wilder phase.)
Finally, June also saw the release of fellow Vermont College-er Jessica Leader’s Nice and Mean, and she came all the way up north to celebrate in style! We feted Jess at Bank Street Books, where she signed books and socialized with her adoring fans (see below).
Yup, summer is in full swing here in New York City, and it looks like the fun times are still heating up. Next up – July 4th weekend and catching up on my reading, of course!
Hey, girlz! Liz here, ushering in your NYC Host, Micol. She's got fun news! Here she is:
One of the very best things about being a readergirlz host is that it gives me a whole new excuse to attend local book events (as if I even needed one!). Today, I relived some of my best YA memories (of both BEING a young adult, and READING young adult alike)!
It’s not an overstatement to say that my love of the Sweet Valley series is in large part responsible for my decision to forge a career in young adult publishing. Imagine my thrill, then, to be invited to join a small circle of diehard Sweet Valley fan bloggers to meet with the bigwigs at St. Martin’s Press to talk about the release of the upcoming sequel: Sweet Valley Confidential!
For anyone who’s ever had a love-hate relationship with the Wakefield twins (and with series for readers of all ages in print, who hasn’t?), this splashy, soapy follow-up (Elizabeth and Jessica are 27!) lets us catch up with the whole crew.
Over lunch (including yummy tiny cupcakes!), we readers talked about what exactly we loved about the series, and how we thought we might be able to build buzz for the book before its release next March. We filled pages and pages of notebooks with ideas, many of which will be rolled out very very soon. You’ll have the chance to read early chapters from Sweet Valley Confidential, to win swag like that pictured above (a teaser chapter from the book, a “Team Jessica” tee shirt, and a sparkly Wakefield compact mirror!), and much, much more!
I’ll be blogging about the first chapter of SV Confidential soon, but in the meantime, whether you’re new to the series or a long-standing groupie, now’s the time to get reading! It’s pretty sweet stuff!
Happy May from NYC, readergirlz! Some of you may know that in addition to writing, I also teach a young adult novel-writing workshop here in New York through Mediabistro.com.
Through that class, I’ve had the joy of working with some amazingly talented students, many of whom have gone on to find agents and have their work published!
My most recent rock star “success story” is Alecia Whitaker, who worked with me for two straight semesters last fall, and just sold her first novel, RICKI JO, to Poppy (a division of Little, Brown). Alecia came to class with a gleam in her eye, a pen in hand, and the memories of her own hilarious and poignant struggles with adolescence firmly in mind. We plotted, we poured over first drafts, we revised. Sometimes we ate candy. Yum!
Though RICKI JO will be Alecia’s young adult debut (look for it Fall 2011), she’s been writing since she was old enough to hold a pencil, and is an accomplished playwright. In fact, many of her own experiences as a teen provided fodder for her show, BECOMING WOMAN, a collaboration with fellow writer Ellen Hagan. That’s why I was thrilled to be able to see her perform last month live, right here in town!
Check out this pic of Alecia and co: she’s third from the left in the blue cardi.
That’s Ellen Hagan on the far left, and from left to right are the rest of Alecia’s new publishing fam: her editor, Elizabeth Bewley, editor Julie Scheina, and the inimitable Cindy Egan (whom I’d never met before but who lives up to her brill and vivacious rep). Finally, on the far end, is Alecia’s powerhouse agent, Alyssa Reuben of Paradigm. Aren’t they the cutest?
The vignettes in the show are semi-autobiographical, and it is at turns laugh-out-loud, evocative, and blazingly energetic. I recognized many personalities from Alecia’s book in her show, and am now more eager than ever to read her story when it’s a real, live book!
You can watch excerpts from BECOMING WOMAN online, or you may even be able to catch a student performance at a theater near you. If not, though, never fear – soon enough, RICKI JO will be here to stay!
Italics in the post are from me, Liz! I'm here to usher in your rgz NYC Host, Micol, who's here to report!
Take it away, Micol!
Last Sunday, I had the distinct honor and pleasure to be invited to the Metuchen, NJ library’s ribbon-cutting ceremony for their brand-spankin’ newly-dedicated teen section!
There were balloons, cookies, and lots of smiling readers – not to mention a very festive purple and green color scheme, which I loved. But perhaps most impressive to me was what I learned about librarian Katherine Liss’ Teen Advisory Board: They lobbied for the teen section all on their own. And they made it happen!
As I told the teens during my post-ceremony book talk, growing up, I was a voracious reader. Had there been a Teen Advisory Board at my local library, I bet I would have joined it. These teens were a chatty bunch, wanting to know all about what sort of advice I’d give to aspiring writers. But the truth – which I told them – is simply to keep doing what they’re doing.
They obviously love books – enough to want their very own dedicated section in their local library, a space to call their own. They’re obviously serious about writing (not a few took notes and even exchanged emails after the fact). And they’re obviously the type of kids who Get Stuff Done.
I’ve done several school and library visits since I first began writing professionally, but I confess this was my first high-falutin’ ribbon-cutting, with fancy local officials and everything. Maybe it was the extra spark of celebration in the air, but talking about PUNK ROCK with my brother David and an enthusiastic audience, an audience that really knew – and appreciated YA literature - felt like some of the best kind of “work” a teen author can hope to do. It’s hard to believe I have to go back to the keyboard now....
Micol and David, brother & sister co-conspirators in bookish wonderfulness!
Thanks so much for having me, Metuchen – keep up the good work (and the reading)!
Micol also has somethin' big coming up on her personal blog:
And here's part of what she has to say on her blog:
Today was a gorgeous day in New York City, which meant that the hubs and I were all the more excited to get outside and rock the drop! We decided to give away an ARC of our forthcoming SASS super-special, UP OVER DOWN UNDER, which releases on my birthday, April 29th! (Happy almost-birthday from your readergirlz pals, Micol!)
Read the rest.
...have come and gone, and along with them, a huge amount of YA fun and festivities at the 2010 NYC Teen Author Fest!
I have been on the road (literally around the world and back) since January, and therefore I wasn’t able to attend as many of the events as I would have liked. Not only did I have to skip out on some amazing panels, I also missed the NYPL Stuff for the Teen Age celebration (sniff),and one of the biggest book signings EVER (no, really)at Books of Wonder! Sixty-eight authors under one roof, no lie. Pretty amazing. Also amazing: the cupcakes for sale at the adjoining cafe.
The morning got off to a rocky start. I arrived at the library of my appointed borough (Manhattan: the Upper East Side, for those of you keeping score at home) only to learn that the class that had been planning to come in for our presentation was not going to be able to make it after all. This was particularly tragic news as certain authors had traveled as far as 3 hours to join us.
Also tragic was the fact that I was “deputy” of this branch of the event and therefore responsible for sending the certain hard-traveled authors home with nary a reading. Yikes!
Thankfully, Violet H. had the brilliant idea of calling the local school and inquiring if there were any other classes that might be interested in a visit from authors. And lo, the good teachers/librarians/administrators at the Robert F. Wager Middle School totally made it happen! My merry band of authors and I trekked a few blocks south and were treated to a library stuffed to the gills with very enthusiastic eighth grade students. In my (very fuzzy, sorry) iPhone pic you can see Michelle Zink holding court in front of a thoroughly captive audience. (Michelle Zink has that effect on people.)
We all had a blast and the kids were great!
YA authors are nothing if not resourceful. And I hereby promote Violet to Co-Deputy Emeritus. She earned it, yo. For reals.
Now I’m back in NYC, and getting back into my writing routine. I’m also back to fun and festive appearances, yay!--specifically one taking place at the Metuchen, NJ library this Sunday! The library will be dedicating its newly-revamped teen section, and I’ll be chatting, reading, answering your questions—and probably eating some cake. I hope you’ll join us!
We are thrilled this month to be talking about Deb Caletti’sTHE SECRET LIFE OF PRINCE CHARMING. Reading this book is like sitting down with a box of chocolate—so luscious, rich, and satisfying. Quinn lives with a houseful of broken-hearted women. But she has a boyfriend who’s into her—or is he? When her dad re-enters her life, Quinn’s determined to give him a chance. Things take a turn for the unexpected, as Quinn learns her dad isn’t just a thief of hearts. Also, there might be a giant plastic hamburger guy involved. And with that, our lips our sealed. Just read it and prepare to be awed.
We’re delivering 10,000 new books to teens on Native reservations and tribal lands.
More than 100 awesome YA authors are dropping off their books around the country. Will you be one of the lucky finders?
You can play along, too. Drop a book in a public spot and you’re done. (You can dress it up with a bookplate if you’d like: http://www.readergirlz.com/tbd.html)
You can also go to Powells.com after April 7 and donate books yourself. There are two wish lists of hundreds of books that will fill the shelves of two tribal school libraries in need.
We’re having a huge virtual party at our blog. It’s at 6 p.m. Pacific, 9 p.m. Eastern.
On April 12, we’re hosting a release party for Diane Duane’sA WIZARD OF MARS. It’s at 6 p.m. Pacific, 9 p.m. Eastern.
And on May 3, we’re celebrating the launch of THE UNWRITTEN RULE by our author-in-residence, Elizabeth Scott. She’s holding fun contests and giving away stuff at her blog, so check it out here: http://blog.elizabethwrites.com/
Meet our new hosts
While we love our monthly online book salons, we also love meeting authors in person. That’s some of the stuff our rgz HOSTS will be doing around the country, and this month, we’re psyched to introduce three superstars:
Little Willow, in Southern California. You might know her from her blog, or from guest appearances she’s made on such shows as Disney’s Wizards of Waverly Place.
Representing from the Big Apple is Micol Ostow, author of more than 40 published works, including SO PUNK ROCK (AND OTHER WAYS TO DISAPPOINT YOUR MOTHER).
Our blast of Miami heat will come from Crissa-Jean Chappell, author of TOTAL CONSTANT ORDER, which VOYA called a “breakthrough” first novel. You can read all about it and her many accomplishments at her site.
More reasons to celebrate!
One of our founding Divas, Dia Calhoun, just sold a middle-grade novel in verse to Antheneum. It’s called EVA OF THE FARM, and we can’t wait for this one to come out. Stay tuned for more details.
And diva Holly Cupala, whose debut novel, TELL ME A SECRET will release in June, just sold her second novel, STREET CREED, to HarperCollins with a double "Wow." We can't wait!
Community service: Operation TBD
This month, we’re encouraging everyone to participate in our own community service event, Operation Teen Book Drop. If you can, leave a book for someone to find. Celebrate reading and make someone’s day. And if your budget allows, consider donating one of the books on the list at Powell’s. You’ll help bring the power of the right story at the right time to a deserving teen.
Postergirlz picks - Lots of Great Titles to Dig Into!
Beauty Shop for Rent by Laura Bowers A Bad Boy Can be Good for a Girl by Tanya Lee Stone Cracked Up to Be by Courtney Summers The Stolen One by Suzanne Crowley FBI Girl: How I Learned to Crack My Father's Code by Maura Conlon-McIvor
Micol and David Ostow are siblings who teamed up to work on So Punk Rock. I heard them read last summer, and I laughed about 10 times in five minutes. Now that's a good book!
Here's Micol with their Cover Story:
"So Punk Rock is a hybrid graphic novel, i.e.: a regular novel with little comic interstitials throughout, the conceit being that the drawings are taken from the main character Ari's notebook, which he initially bought to use for his music (turns out he's much better at sketching than songwriting). So we'd looked at a lot of the illustrated books that had been coming out at that time like Wimpy Kid and the Minx line from DC, where the cover art was directly indicative of the illustrations inside. In my head I had this thought that it was going to look like a marbled composition notebook, with a drawing sort of "scotch-taped" on that was something Ari had done.
"We talked it over with our editor, Andrew Karre (who has since left Flux to take over the young adult imprint at Carol Rhoda), who was kind enough to listen to my (shockingly specific) suggestions. Considering how many novels I've published, I don't know that my input had been solicited on cover art in the past, and clearly I was jumping on the opportunity to have my voice heard.
"Thankfully, Andrew is patient. Also thankfully, he ultimately went with his design team's much more professional concept. What can I say? I'm a word person, not a picture person.
"After that first conversation, we didn't hear from the art team again until they had an almost-final comp ready, which was almost exactly the cover as it appears on the book. It may have been a product of the flux (no pun intended) of the changing of the editorial guard (Andrew was replaced by the equally awesome Brian Farrey), or maybe they were simply afraid of hearing more of my lousy ideas, but what they showed us was what the sales team had approved, which I knew as a former editor meant that barring any unexpected author meltdowns, it was essentially a done deal.
"I suppose if we had HATED it, they would have been willing to reconsider. But fortunately, that wasn't the case.
"I think our only feedback at the time was that David's credit (which started out saying "illustrated by" and ended up as "art by") wasn't quite bold enough. So they beefed up the font for us so that Dave could have his props.
"Obviously the art was David's, taken from the interior. But our amazing designer Lisa Novak, had some good information about how the rest of it came about, so I'll give the floor to her:
"Andrew Karre, your initial editor, had a rough idea of what he was looking for. He told me that he wanted a cover with multiple bands of imagery. He said that I should put David's drawings on the cover along with photos of something indicating music in some way (a guitar, drums, etc). Other than that the rest was up to me.
"I thought about what punk rock means to me and what that genre looks like in my mind. I'm going to date myself here, but to me punk rock is the Sex Pistols so I went immediately to the look they had on their posters and album covers and used that as a jumping off point. To me punk rock is loud and messy and fast with bodies everywhere jumping around and bright lights. It's fun and there's a lot going on all at the same time and I wanted that to come through on the cover.
"I decided the horizontal bands for the title and author name is where I could pay homage to the Pistols design so I ripped some paper and scanned it in and overlaid those pieces with some distressed metal images. For the fonts I wanted those to play to the Pistols design as well so I chose some grungy, messy fonts. In the 2 alternate covers that weren't chosen I actually used about 6 or 7 different fonts to make up the title.
"The cover that was chosen uses one of David's illustrations of the whole band at the top. I looked at his drawing and imagined what the band sounded like and then mixed a couple stock images together of a crowd dancing and some bright spot lights to get a psychedelic background to give the feeling of the loud, fast music. To tie the cover together I knew I wanted a photo of what the band would look like in real life, like the kids reading the story might imagine. I found this photo of a guitarist and drummer on a stock photo site and thought, sure, this could be Ari and Yossi jamming at a bar mitzvah. I added the Star of David to Ari's guitar strap to give a little clue about what makes this band special, and I had the cover as you see it now.
"The two alternate covers I designed used the same basic idea that was laid out by Andrew and the same thoughts I had about punk rock. The committee who chose the cover was torn and it took them a while to decide on the final cover because in essence, all 3 covers are very similar in their feel and look with slight variations in the imagery. But I think all 3 covers project that feeling of fast music and punk rock in their own way."
"Personally, I love all three covers, and the Star of David is a great touch. The Sex Pistols is the perfect reference, in my opinion. The one real surprise to me was the colored-in version of the band--frankly, I had no idea Jonas was blond. But I love it!
"If we're going for 100% honesty, it's not actually a cover I would necessarily have picked up myself if I were browsing in a bookstore. It's definitely very "boy"--much more so than any of my previous books/covers, like Emily Goldberg Learns to Salsa, for example (which makes sense, because it's the most "boy" story I've ever written, not the least because it's told from a male POV). BUT I did think it was eye-catching, and very true to the sensibility of the story, so I was happy. I know that it appeals to the book's target audience, and we get lots of compliments on the cover, too, so I have plenty of positive reinforcement. Lisa and the rest of the Flux team were dead-on in creating something that really captured the "punk rock" spirit of the story, and communicated about the characters, too."
I love this story and the inspiration images--the Sex Pistols influence is so clear now that Lisa mentions it! Thanks to Micol, David and Lisa for the story.
What do you guys think of the cover?
Here's the trailer for the book, which will make you want it even more:
Helping me close out this month's family series are siblings Micol and David Ostow.
Rumor has it I was less-than-thrilled about the birth of my baby brother. The details are hazy to me, seeing as I was three at the time, but the story goes that I'd been staying with my grandparents while my mother was in the hospital. We got the call that she'd given birth, and my father announced to me that I had a new little brother. To which I replied, "I want to live with Grandma and Grandpa now." 1
That pretty much set the tone in our relationship from childhood through the college years.2 I'm not sure what changed exactly, or when, but these days my brother is not only my writing partner3 but also one of my very best friends. And I have learned that a bonus in working with a partner who also happens to be your brother is that you are granted carte blanche to occasionally revert to your five-year-old self amidst times of stress.
Family has to love you, even when you're not being a mature and professional adult-type person.4
1. (It didn't fly.) 2. (His, not mine.) 3. (SO PUNK ROCK, an illustrated novel, due out this July!) 4. (Thank GAWD!)
- Micol Ostow
I disagree with Micol. Family does not have to love you. My very unscientific observations suggest that the odds of being born into a community of people who are prepared to love you for who you are and who – in their tolerance – deserve the same, are fairly slim.
For better and for worse, we Ostows have beaten those odds.
For better because the freedom to pursue our chosen paths has given Micol and me not only a clear perspective on our own selves, but on one another as well. And it turns out we're not so different. Our shared sense of entitlement, cynicism to the world at large, and tendency to laugh at the expense of others are the keys to any success with which So Punk Rock is met. Without the opportunity to harness all this negative energy and to deflect it outwards, Micol would still be throwing blunt objects at me – as she did when we were children - and I would still be sleeping with one eye open.
For worse because, having given us carte blanche to explore our creative sides, our parents paved the way for a long history to come of sibling competition. This was first evident when my sister, age 10, declared that she "could write circles around anything I drew." At the time, my 7-year-old self couldn’t make sense of the figurative nature of this comment and could scarcely understand why Micol wouldn't prefer the more standard medium of ruled paper to my pretty good drawing of Garfield which didn't call for any embellishment as far as I could tell. At 30 years old, I think I finally understand what she was getting at, and let’s just say the race is on to see who can exploit their talent faster and more effectively. (She's winning so far.)
Luckily - and perhaps in anticipation of this - our parents bequeathed to us another long-standing Ostow family institution: Therapy.
Written entirely in blog posts and status updates, GoldenGirl is definitely a modern story. Describing the lives of girls who would normally be upper class boarding school snobs, the blog aspect made the characters easy to understand in a way I've never experienced before with the 'mean girl' character. Being inside Spencer's head gave me a chance to learn what she was really going through and why she acted the way she did.
Neatly enough, the story doesn't end when the last page is turned, and no that's not just because book two is coming out soon - Bradford Prep continues online. The very blogs mentioned between the covers actually exist on the internet with additional information from the characters. Most of the girls even have Twitter and Facebook accounts too! Not only is the story fun to read, but it's interactive to boot.
Take a look at bradfordprep.com for a peek, then read the book for yourself.
