Teens Wanna Know: Otherworldly YA Books

Looking for an awesome YA book that will take you out of this world? Love sci-fi/fantasy series? Check out my guest post at Teens Wanna Know! 

I've recommended five fantastic stories by Christopher Golden (Prowlers), Thomas E. Sniegoski (Fallen), Scott Westerfeld (Uglies), Justine Larbalestier (How to Ditch Your Fairy), and Holly Black (The Curse Workers). These books include angels, shapeshifters, surgeries, good luck, and bad luck, among other things. 

If you haven't read them yet, you should. If you have read them, let me know which one you liked the best.

Check out my Otherworldly YA post at Teens Wanna Know and leave a comment!  

Diva Delight: Steampunk!: An Anthology of Fantastically Rich and Strange Stories

You know we love steampunk at readergirlz. We had a blast with Scott Westerfeld, right? Well, how about a collection of steampunk short stories by some more of our favorite, favorite YA authors? You'll recognize many from our rgz Circle of Stars, past guests and contributors. Grab your goggles, because this collection by Kelly Link and Gavin J. Grant delivers!


So, what will you find in Steampunk: An Anthology of Fantastically Rich and Strange Stories? How about mystery, murders, and machines? Worlds of gears and steam in amazing new locations from the minds of 14 writers: M. T. Anderson, Holly Black, Libba Bray, Shawn Cheng, Cassandra Clare, Cory Doctorow, Dylan Horrocks, Kathleen Jennings, Elizabeth Knox, Kelly Link, Garth Nix, Christopher Rowe, Delia Sherman, and Ysabeau S. Wilce.


How fun to find new authors I hadn't discovered before among old friends, all writing speculative fiction which often left me with chills. This quote from Cory's short story "Clockwork Fagin" really captures the collective atmosphere of Steampunk!:

"For machines may be balky and they may destroy us with their terrible appetite for oil, blood, and flesh, but they behave according to fixed rules and can be understood by anyone with the cunning to look upon them and winkle out their secrets. Children are ever so much more complicated."

Perfect, right? With three starred reviews already, look for this release October 11th!

Steampunk!: An Anthology of Fantastically Rich and Strange Stories
edited by Kelly Link and Gary J. Gavin
Candlewick Press, 2011

rgz Seattle HOST: The Cassandra Clare & Holly Black Tour!

Hi readergirlz,

Earlier this month I headed out to see Holly Black and Cassandra Clare on tour promoting Red Glove and City of Fallen Angels at Third Place Books in Seattle. There was standing room only (see right), unless you wanted to pick your way through tightly packed knees and take the one seat deep in the middle, between the mom with the baby and the big pack of girls. I was eyeing it… but I chickened out.

A few highlights from Holly’s and Cassandra’s Q&A:

Advice for aspiring authors: Read outside your comfort zone; read a lot of nonfiction, because you’ll use it; write a lot; and find a critique partner who’ll tell you when your stuff is crazy.

For Shadow Hunter fans: Cassandra has a new trilogy in the works!

Holly’s favorite part of being an author is meeting other authors, and “not having to pretend [she's] not staring at them in a creepy way.” Love that, Holly! Except tonight, I was the one staring at you in a creepy way.

Cassandra’s favorite part of being an author is getting to talk about her characters with people who know all their quirks and foibles, just like she does.

It was amazing to see these two ladies in action -- they're warm and totally down-to-earth, with wicked senses of humor. Don't miss them if they hit your town on the tour.

See you soon, girlz! --Stephanie

Our Seattle Host, Stephanie Guerra, teaches children’s literature, young adult fiction and a seminar in writing instruction at Seattle University. She also heads a volunteer creative writing program at King County Jail, and researches and speaks about literacy instruction for at-risk and incarcerated young adults. Stephanie lives in Seattle, Washington with her husband and children. Her debut young adult novel, TORN, will be published by Marshall Cavendish in spring of 2012.

Rock the Drop: Photo Op!

Featured Author Quote: Holly Black on White Cat

Holly Black stopped by to add her input on our discussion of Compassion and White Cat, so we thought we'd highlight that for anyone who missed it! Holly says:

"It is so interesting to hear people talk about my characters like they're people you know -- it's one of the things that I think writers like best, because most of the time we're alone with these characters for long stretches of time. They become real to us and we have strong feelings about them - but we're the only people who do - so when we meet readers who want to talk about them, it makes us feel less crazy.

"The thing I have been continuously surprised by is the compassion that readers have for Barron. He's a troubled and troubling guy, but many feel sorry for him in a way that I don't!"

Thanks, Holly! White Cat readers: Thoughts? Have you ever felt compassion for a character who wasn't necessarily "good"?

White Cat: Characters with Compassion

This week's focus is on Holly Black's White Cat and it's an excellent representation of this month's theme: Compassion. Cassel is a character with great compassion in the midst of a cold, calculating, con-artist family.

For discussion: If you've read White Cat, how do you think Cassel developed his own deep compassion in this harsh setting?

And, in general, what books have you read where a character has great compassion, and how did it shape the story?

Featured Title: WHITE CAT (The Curse Workers, Book One), by Holly Black

Cassel comes from a family of curse workers -- people who have the power to change your emotions, your memories, your luck, by the slightest touch of their hands. And since curse work is illegal, they're all mobsters, or con artists. Except for Cassel. He hasn't got the magic touch, so he's an outsider, the straight kid in a crooked family. You just have to ignore one small detail -- he killed his best friend, Lila, three years ago.

Ever since, Cassel has carefully built up a façade of normalcy, blending into the crowd. But his façade starts crumbling when he starts sleepwalking, propelled into the night by terrifying dreams about a white cat that wants to tell him something. He's noticing other disturbing things, too, including the strange behavior of his two brothers. They are keeping secrets from him, caught up in a mysterious plot. As Cassel begins to suspect he's part of a huge con game, he also wonders what really happened to Lila. Could she still be alive? To find that out, Cassel will have to out-con the conmen.


With White Cat, Holly Black has created a gripping tale of mobsters and dark magic where a single touch can bring love -- or death -- and your dreams might be more real than your memories.

Holly Black, bestselling author of Tithe, Ironside, and The Spiderwick Chronicles (to name a very few), has a reputation which precedes her in the best possible way. My most-respected grad-school colleagues and aficionados of urban fantasy have had nothing but lavish praise for her work, and likewise her original acquiring editor at my old stomping grounds of Simon & Schuster. When she came to speak at my Vermont College Alumni Mini-Residency this past July on the subject of world-building, I knew I was in for a treat. 

Holly's opening words of wisdom? When considering one's writing, it is best to keep in mind that "hard things are hard." Believe you me, it's a bon mot I've trotted out on many occasions since. 

It is perhaps precisely because Holly has such abiding respect for the value of solid world-building that her new series draws so compelling a parallel between the black market of magic and such historical prohibitions of vices like alcohol. Her newest urban fantasy is in point of fact a smooth exercise in hardboiled noir that deftly synthesizes genres in a way that should captivate fans old and new. 

December's theme at readergirlz is Compassion, and I imagine there are a myriad of ways that the theme could be applied to White Cat: compassion for a society living with seemingly unreasonable restrictions; compassion for a teen boy uncertain of his place in the world. Compassion, indeed, for the writer, who grapples with the minutia of authentic, believable world-building. 

So, readers, we divas put the question to you -- in what ways does White Cat embody this month's theme of compassion? Let us know what you think!

TRW Tribute: Holly Black 9:30

"Reading is the most powerful thing I know. It can provide an escape, an education, a promise of a different future, and a sympathy with the past. Shared reading can make strangers into instant friends and can reach across all the things that divide us as individuals."

Holly Black

Steampunk is really cool...

...especially when it involves Holly Black and her hidden library:

Holly Black's Hidden Library

Thanks to Chasing Ray for the cool link!

Holly Cupala, rgz diva & author