Last night, we had a wonderful chat with YA author Diana Peterfreund. She dished with the chatters until the wee hours of the morning -- even outlasting the moderator, LOL! Thanks to everyone who came out. If you're were not able to make it, check out the transcript below. :-)
UPDATE: The winner of an advanced reading copy of ASCENDANT is Jennifer Mathis! Congrats!! Thanks to everyone who participated. Remember, tomorrow night we'll be giving away more of Diana's books at her online chat event. Hope to see you there! (Chat access instructions are at the bottom of this post.) Jennifer, please email your physical addy to contests(AT)knightagency.net.
To win an advanced reading copy of ASCENDANT by Diana Peterfreund leave your name in the comment section, and don't forget that Diana will be the guest author in TKA's chat room THIS THURSDAY (Aug. 19 @ 9pm ET). We've got an exciting event planned with great pub convo and more giveaways. ;-) Hope to see you there!
The ARC winner will be announced tomorrow afternoon. Instructions on how to enter TKA's chat room are below.
The 411: Astrid Llewelyn is now a fully-trained unicorn hunter, but she’s learning she can’t solve all her problems with just a bow and arrow. Her boyfriend Giovanni has decided to leave Rome, the Cloisters is in dire financial straits, her best friend’s powers seem to be mysteriously disintegrating, and Astrid fears that school, home, and her hopes of becoming a scientist are nothing but impossible dreams.
So when she’s given the opportunity to leave the Cloisters and put her skills to use as part of a scientific quest to discover The Remedy, Astrid leaps at the chance. Finally, she can have exactly what she wants…or can she? At the Gordian Pharmaceuticals headquarters deep in the French countryside, Astrid begins to question everything she thought she believed: her love for Giovanni, her loyalty to the Cloisters, and – most of all – her duty as a hunter. Should Astrid be saving the world from killer unicorns, or saving the unicorns from the world?
LINK:The Knight Agency Chat Room HOW TO CHAT: Enter a username and password (any combination). Choose "Login." **Your computer must be java-enabled to chat.**
Diane Peterfreund Chatting Online Next Thursday, Aug. 19th @ 9pm ET!
Do you think unicorns look like this:
Think again. Author Diana Peterfreund has pulled back the pastel-colored curtains to reveal the true nature of the beast. Forget the streaming white hair and blank, doe-eyed stare, and start thinking vicious teeth, dark eyes and a taste for blood...
Last year, Diana debuted RAMPANT, her story of fierce female unicorn hunters, featuring main heroine, Astrid. The followup, ASCENDANT (HarperTeen), will be released in September.
This month, Diana will be our guest author in The Knight Agency chat room on Thursday, August 19th @ 9pm ET to discuss writing for the YA audience, unicorn mythos, her upcoming projects, and any other questions you could possibly think of! We'll also have lots of shiny new books to give away. ;-)
HOW TO CHAT: Enter a username and password (any combination). Choose "Login." **Your computer must be java-enabled to chat.**
The 411 on ASCENDANT: Astrid Llewelyn is now a fully-trained unicorn hunter, but she’s learning she can’t solve all her problems with just a bow and arrow. Her boyfriend Giovanni has decided to leave Rome, the Cloisters is in dire financial straits, her best friend’s powers seem to be mysteriously disintegrating, and Astrid fears that school, home, and her hopes of becoming a scientist are nothing but impossible dreams.
So when she’s given the opportunity to leave the Cloisters and put her skills to use as part of a scientific quest to discover The Remedy, Astrid leaps at the chance. Finally, she can have exactly what she wants…or can she? At the Gordian Pharmaceuticals headquarters deep in the French countryside, Astrid begins to question everything she thought she believed: her love for Giovanni, her loyalty to the Cloisters, and – most of all – her duty as a hunter. Should Astrid be saving the world from killer unicorns, or saving the unicorns from the world?
Diana Peterfreund, author of RAMPANT, was interviewed by Better, a nationally syndicated lifestyle television show airing in 54 cities. She talked about the real deal on unicorns, who are really NOT the kind creatures Lisa Frank Trapper Keepers would have you believe -- try smart, vicious animals with killer instincts. Click here for the segment!
The American Library Association kicked off Teen Read Weekon October 18th. This year's theme is "Read Beyond Reality." The purpose of this special week is to remind teens that one of the greatest forms of entertainment is reading, which is "free, fun and can be done anywhere." If there are any teens out there (or adults) looking for some fabulous books to celebrate Teen Read Week, we have several great offerings from a few of TKA's young adult authors. Enjoy!
2. Marley Gibson -- GHOST HUNTRESS: THE AWAKENING (Book 2), GHOST HUNTRESS: THE GUIDANCE (Book 1)
3. Rosemary Clement-Moore -- THE SPLENDOR FALLS and her series MAGGIE QUINN: GIRL VS. EVIL (PROM DATES FROM HELL, HELL WEEK and HIGHWAY TO HELL)
4. Rachel Caine -- THE MORGANVILLE VAMPIRES Series (GLASS HOUSES, DEAD GIRLS' DANCE, MIDNIGHT ALLEY, FEAST OF FOOLS, LORD OF MISRULE, CARPE CORPUS, FADE OUT and KISS OF DEATH)
Warning: What you are about to witness might be disturbing...
A public service announcement produced by researchers at NUCA (National Unicorn Control Agency) is making waves throughout the nation. Be forewarned, several brave souls sacrificed their lives to produce this video. What you will see in this footage is disturbing, but necessary. We must become more educated about these bloodthirsty killers masquerading as sweetness and light on lunchboxes and Trapper Keepers (do they even have Trapper Keepers, anymore?). For more information, visit www.KillerUnicorns.org or you can check out the blog of author/unicorn expert Diana Peterfreund, who recently visited NUCA headquarters.
Diana Peterfreund's RAMPANT Reviewed by Publishers Weekly
Congrats to Diana Peterfreund for fantastic review from Publishers Weekly for her first young adult novel, RAMPANT, which will release August 25th.
REVIEW: "This compelling new adventure, Peterfreund’s (Secret Society Girl) YA debut, introduces an international cast of strong young women, virginal descendants of Alexander the Great, who hunt an unusual breed of monster: unicorns. Sixteen-year-old narrator Astrid Llewelyn never believed her mother’s stories about unicorns—portrayed as bloodthirsty, venomous and near impossible to kill—until one impales the boy she’s seeing. Sent to Rome (unwillingly) to train with other huntresses in response to the “Reemergence” of the supposedly extinct creatures, Astrid makes new friends and enemies, hones her powers and finds time for a little romance, while coming to grips with her new life (“Forgive me if enforced lifelong celibacy and possible death by dismemberment and poisoning don’t exactly get me excited,” she gripes). But she soon suspects (as will readers) that the war against the unicorns isn’t so cut-and-dried. With an atmospheric setting, personable ensemble cast and some reasoned discussions about virginity, this gripping page-turner evokes the same grrl-power spirit as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, packed with action, mystery and a complex and intriguing mythology. Ages 12–up (Aug.)"
UPDATE: The winner of the SECRET SOCIETY GIRL series is Nora! Please email your physical address to contests @ knightagency.net. Remove the spaces. Congrats!
Leave your name in the comments below to enter the giveaway for Diana Peterfreund's entire SECRET SOCIETY GIRL series, including an advanced reading copy of TAP & GOWN! The winner will be announced tomorrow morning!
TAP & GOWN Cover Copy:
Top secret societies…bizarre initiation rites…campus love triangles…political shenanigans…Diana Peterfreund has dazzled readers and critics alike with her Ivy league novels, hailed as “impossible to put down”* and “witty and endearing”** In this final installment, Eli University senior Amy “Bugaboo” Haskel and her fellow Diggers are preparing to face real life in worlds far beyond the hallowed halls of Eli.
For Amy the countdown to graduation has begun, and suddenly the perfect ending to a perfectly iconoclastic Eli career is slipping from her grasp. Her new boyfriend’s been made an offer he just can’t refuse. Her fellowship applications haven’t even been filed. And the student she’s chosen to take her place in Rose & Grave – the country’s more powerful and notorious secret society – seems to come complete with a secret life already intact.
Lunging toward the finish line, Amy finds trouble around every corner, from society intrigues and unlikely stalkers to former flames and mandatory science credits. Surely it couldn’t get worse…until Initiation Night explodes into a terrifying scene and into a last test of wits for a young woman just trying to make it out of the Ivy League in one piece.
Diana Peterfreund is bringing her successful SECRET SOCIETY GIRL series to a close this May with TAP & GOWN. If you've read any of her books, you'll get a big belly laugh out of the innovative book trailer she created using Xtranormal. If you haven't, trust me, you'll still love it too! Funny stuff!
*Please note, there are RITES OF SPRING (BREAK) spoilers in the video.
YA Spring Break Week has come to an end. Thanks to all of our WONDERFUL guest bloggers, including Monica McKayhan, Shannon Greenland, Lucienne Diver, Diana Peterfreund and Rachel Caine. You all did an awesome job! Also, thanks to everyone who commented and participated in our contests. We had an absolute blast and we hope that you did too!
We still have a few unclaimed prizes. If you recognize your name from the following list, please email your physical address to contests @ knightagency.net (remove spaces in address):
Winner of 5 Books from Monica McKayhan's INDIGO series: Anna
Winners of Signed VAMPED bookplates from Lucienne Diver: Nicola, Suzette and Isabel
Today's winner of signed Rachel Caine book of their choice: tetewa
YA Spring Break Week: Guest Blogger Diana Peterfreund
UPDATE: The winner of an ARC of TAP & GOWN is nightdweller20. Please email your physical address to contests @ knightagency.net (remove the spaces in the email addy). Congrats!
THE MYTH OF PRINCE CHARMING
I never liked Prince Charming.
You remember him. That generic, stock character, two-timing Prince that snagged both Snow White and Cinderella in the Disney movies? He didn’t have a name, he didn’t have his own lines, he didn’t even have complex animated eyes (how you can tell you’re a real character in a Disney movie: irises.)
Though in the traditional fairy tales, PC goes onto to land Sleeping Beauty, too, the brilliant team behind the Disney version saw fit to grace him with both a name (Phillip) and an identifiable personality (his first appearance on screen features him, as a freckled child, wrinkling up his nose at the wrinkly infant princess he’s betrothed to). They also gave the Princess a name (Aurora), and they both, thank God, skipped over Coraline-style black button eyes.
Is it any wonder that Briar Rose/Aurora and Phillip’s love story was the first one that I, even as a youth, actually bought? They were in love before the curse hits, and you could see why they were actually a good match – so outdoorsy, and musical. When Phillip fights the dragon and frees Aurora, you feel like the two of them actually deserve their happily ever after. They are a real couple, one whose romance rings true.
“Prince Charming,” on the other hand is not a character to fall in love with; he’s a prize to be won. Get your foot in that glass slipper, look pretty enough in that glass coffin, and Prince Charming’s all yours. Consciousness? Him knowing your name? Eh, not important.
Talk about shallow!
You can’t fall in love with perfect and bland, and that’s all Prince Charming has to offer. No wonder he only hits on chicks in comas, or girls for whom the alternative is working as slaves for evil stepmoms. Any other girl would tell him to take a hike. It’s all in the name.
Prince = I’m rich, baby. Wealth and power, that’s right. You know you want it. Charming = Handsome? Why yes, I suppose I am. I certainly have all the palace wenches after me.
Yeah. What a prize. I’d lay good odds on the idea that Prince Charming is the kind of guy who turns into scary abusive husband when his Princess Charming doesn’t stay as submissive and obedient as she was when she was unconscious. No. Thank. You.
Prince Charming was the template for the hero in the old fashioned romance novels. You know the ones, where the guy totally ignored the girl for the entire book and then three pages from the end comes back and explains why he was in love with her all the time? Yeah, I wasn’t a fan of those, either. He didn’t get a personality of his own. Again, he was just a prize to be won. It’s a common flaw in many chick lit novels, as well. A chick lit novel is about the heroine’s journey – I get that – but far too often, we see gorgeous guy just fall out of the woodwork at the end and be madly in love with the heroine. For no reason. With no real personality of his own. And, most of all, with no insight into why these two should be together.
Hey, I’m cool with writing stories where the romance is not the main focus. I do that myself. I’m even cool with the ending of “now that you, heroine, have your personal issues sorted out, I will award you with a new job, a fab apartment, a closet filled with the shoes of your choice, and oh, look, a gorgeous guy.” Romance-as-reward works for me, but it has to also make sense. A shoe can be beautiful and simple and perfect. Real people seldom are.
If there is a romance in the book, it should have a reason for existing. I need to know that there is something these two people see in one another for me to root for them to end up together. I need to believe there’s a reason these two are in love before I can believe that they actually are. It doesn’t need to be grand. It doesn’t need to be epic. Sometimes people are in love for very quiet, prosaic reasons. Common experiences. Mutual concern for a child. Shared passion for bird-watching, foreign films, or finding the perfect crème brulee. Whatever it is.
Do you know who doesn’t have these things? Prince Charming. He has no personality of his own. You can’t love that. Not really. I prefer Prince Charming-But-Damaged, or Prince Not-Really-All-That-Charming-But-Has-a-Good-Heart. Or a Good Right Hook. Or Your Back In A Fight. Those are the kind of princes who really make for Happily Ever Afters.
Be one of the first fans to read TAP & GOWN(Delta, May 2009)! Enter to win a signed ARC (advanded reading copy) by leaving your name in the comment section. The winner will be announced tomorrow morning.
Also coming soon from Diana: RAMPANT (Harper Teen, August 2009): Astrid Llewelyn has always scoffed at her eccentric mother’s stories about killer unicorns. But when one of the monsters attacks her boyfriend in the woods – thereby ruining any chance of him taking her to prom – Astrid learns that unicorns are real and dangerous, and she has a family legacy to uphold. Her mother packs her off to Rome to train as a unicorn hunter at the ancient cloisters the hunters have used for centuries. However, at the cloisters, all is not what is seems. Outside, the unicorns wait to attack. And within, Astrid faces other, unexpected threats: from crumbling, bone-covered walls that vibrate with a terrible power to the hidden agendas of her fellow hunters to – perhaps most dangerously of all – her growing attraction to a handsome art student… and a relationship that could jeopardize everything.
If you love YA, then you'll love what we have planned starting Monday, March 30th! It's YA Spring Break Week on the TKA blog. Our lineup includes guest authors Monica McKayhan, Shannon Greenland, Lucienne Diver, Diana Peterfreund and Rachel Caine. They will each tackle one of the classic character types in YA literature. Think Prince Charming, the irrepressible Sidekick, the Diva, the Bad Boy, and of course, America's Sweetheart. Looking back to my own high school days, there are a few more I could add in. How about yourself? What about the Bookworm (read: me). LOL. Glad those days are over, but I still love to read about them and reminisce.
Don't forget to check back next week for these special guest blogs, which will feature plenty of fabulous prizes!
Diana Peterfreund recently worked the NYC circuit at a party celebrating the publication of VIOLET IN PRIVATE and GAMER GIRL by authors Melissa Walker and Marianne Mancusi, respectively. Mancusi is known as a promo queen, and the strategic placement of Connect Four, Hungry Hippos and other classic games in honor of GAMER GIRL were a home runwithpartygoers. The event was held at Butter, a restaurant notorious in living rooms nationwide for its appearance in the addictive Gossip Girl television series.In the top image, Diana (3rd from left) is pictured with Scott Westerfield, author of theUGLIES series, Mancusi (2nd from left) and Walker (far right). In the bottom picture, Mina Jacqueline Au, author of SCHOOLED and Anisha Lakhani, play Connect Four. Also, spotted mingling in the crowd were attendees from Vogue, Teen Vogue, ELLE, InStyle, Daily Candy, CNN and Better TV, as well as various publicists, socialites and editors from Dorchester and Penguin. Currently, Diana is gearing up for her new release from Harper Teen, RAMPANT, which will hit shelves in May 2009.
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Forget everything you ever thought you knew about unicorns...The fluffy sparkly friendly “horses” so popular with six year old girls the world over are a travesty of revisionist history.
Real unicorns are man eating beasts with razor sharp fangs and a fatal venom in their lethal horns. And they can only be killed by the virgin descendants of Alexander the Great.
Last night, we had a wonderful chat with YA author Diana Peterfreund. She dished with the chatters until the wee hours of the morning -- even outlasting the moderator, LOL! Thanks to everyone who came out. If you're were not able to make it, check out the transcript below. :-)
