Fresh Takes from the Teen Shelves All the news, updates and gossip for the Young Adult — books, authors, movies and more! Ah, spring fever. Every April, I have the hardest time making myself do work. I just want to lay around enjoying the gorgeous weather–not too hot, not too cold–goofing off. Which for me means reading books. Here are a few suggestions for your Spring Fever Slack Off, starting with interviews with Kelley Armstrong and Heather Davis, who were nice enough to tell me about their new releases. Kelley Armstrong has been delighting fans of contemporary fantasy and paranormal romance with her Women of the Otherworld series (Bitten, Dime Store Magic) for awhile, and in 2008, she added a series of YA books to her extensive list, the third of which comes out on April 6th. Kelley Armstrong: THE RECKONING is the final book in the Darkest Powers trilogy. In the first book, fifteen-year-old Chloe Saunders started seeing ghosts. After a breakdown at school, she was taken to a group home, which she quickly discovered was not what it seemed. After being on the run in THE AWAKENING, she’s taken shelter in a place that seems safe. But for…

As a writer, I get ideas from all sorts of things: movies, newspaper articles, stories from my friends, and yes, sometimes the calendar. The Blaze Encounters series are linked short stories that revolve around a common theme, which is sometimes a holiday. A couple of summers back, I was hanging with my editor at the RWA National Conference and chatting up what’s *hot* in the Blaze line, and we began talking about the Encounters, and at that point, we were one glass of wine away from the idea of a Blaze Encounters that revolves around April Fools Days. Yes, while others think of Valentine’s Day or Christmas, I, of course, think of April Fool’s, and because I felt the idea was so stupendous, I immediately drafted my talented critique partner, Julie Kenner, into coming along for the write. April Fool’s dates back a long, long time, easily as far back as the Middle Ages, and some experts pin its origin to Chaucer’s Canterbury Tale. Others experts point to the French calendar, which is the most respected (or suspected, as the case may be) theory. In 1564, the first of the calendar year was moved from Easter to January 1, but…

September 2009On Sale: September 8, 2009Featuring: Pilate; Mary368 pages ISBN: 1416532633EAN: 9781416532637Paperback$15.00 Religious Fiction, Historical Buy at Amazon.com Girl Maryby Petru Popescu For nearly two millennia, Mary of Nazareth, the mother of Jesus, has been one of the most revered women in history, yet she remains one of the most mysterious. With his empire in crisis, Augustus orders a young Roman spy to find a sign of his divinely inspired power. Concealing his real name, Pontius Pilate enters the Judean desert seeking an unknown miracle. The moment he meets the striking adolescent Mary, he senses that he is in the presence of someone magical. Mary, vigorous, spiritual, and charming, is a girl like many other teenage girls: full of passions and weaknesses, surrounded by her loving family and her close friends, steeped in the mystic traditions of the Jews — territory that defies Roman comprehension. The young Pilate isn’t wrong in believing that Mary is remarkable. On the verge of blossoming womanhood, Mary’s world will soon open to love — and to the miraculous. Full of mystical realism and set against the lushly reimagined settings of the biblical world, Girl Mary is the love story of the beautiful girl, naïve…