Those of you who haven’t yet gone through the college admissions process will think that my novel, GETTING IN, surely exaggerates how crazy things get. Those of you who have survived to tell the tale know the truth – which is that everything I wrote about could easily have happened, and in fact may have to someone you know. I’ve spent most of my life writing non-fiction, and at first I thought about doing it again this time – writing an irreverent parents’ guide to surviving college admissions with your sense of humor and perspective intact. But the world hardly needs another guide book. And besides, to me the family stories were far more interesting than the question of where a particular kid happened to get accepted or get turned down. I made up funny subtitles for a novel, to get myself in the right frame of mind: A Comedy of Bad Manners, or A Novel of Desire, because the way we behave seemed a far richer subject than the process itself. I found myself rereading Edith Wharton, Jane Austen, Dawn Powell, and thinking about family and ambition and dreams and competition. I began to look at college as yet…

Most of us have money challenges: credit card debt, too much month at the end of the money, problems with guilt spending and retail therapy. Sometimes those money problems can feel overwhelming. That’s where girlfriends come in. They save us from having to face those problems alone. Our good friends sympathize and support us. They comfort us with chocolate. They help us stay motivated. I’m a firm believer in girl power and the value of bringing in the girlfriend squad to help us conquer our challenges. Which is just what my three friends do in my novel Small Change! When faced with money, life, and love problems these women band together, determined to start making changes. The ones they make eventually add up to a big difference in their attitudes and how their lives play out. The book is fiction, but the concept is real life. Pulling together with your friends is the best way to conquer those financial challenges. So, how exactly can your girlfriend squad help you? First, they can help you evaluate your strengths and weaknesses when it comes to money. Most of us have a hard time finding our money management flaws. If you tend to…

May 2010 On Sale: May 4, 2010 Featuring: Zachary; Logan; Aura 320 pages ISBN: 1416994068 EAN: 9781416994060 Hardcover $17.99 Young Adult Paranormal Buy at Amazon.com Shade by Jeri Smith-Ready When her boyfriend dies a most untimely death, Aura–who can see ghosts–is forced to reconsider her relationship with the living and dead in SHADE. Love ties them together. Death can’t tear them apart. Best. Birthday. Ever. At least, it was supposed to be. With Logan’s band playing a critical gig and Aura’s plans for an intimate after-party, Aura knows it will be the most memorable night of her boyfriend’s life. She never thought it would be his last. Logan’s sudden death leaves Aura devastated. He’s gone. Well, sort of. Like everyone born after the Shift, Aura can see and hear ghosts. This mysterious ability has always been annoying, and Aura had wanted nothing more than to figure out why the Shift happened so she can undo it. But not with Logan’s violet-hued spirit still hanging around. Because dead Logan is almost as real as ever. Almost. It doesn’t help that Aura’s new friend Zachary is so understanding—and so very alive. His support means more to Aura than she cares to admit….

What would it take for you to go into the WITSEC program? We see this on television and read about it in books, but the idea of disappearing from our real lives is so foreign most people can’t even consider the possibility. I had a conversation with someone who knows a person in the WITSEC program and it’s a very scary situation. Notice how vague I kept that. Even though I don’t know this person’s name and there’s no chance of me being involved with this person I wouldn’t want to so much as hint at anything regarding them. But have you ever thought – “What if I saw something that would guarantee my death if I didn’t hide?” Most of us are pretty stressed when life throws a curve our way with a serious family issue that forces us to drop what we’re doing and leave town for a few days, but to walk away from everything within less than an hour? Many WITSEC members have had to do just that. Law enforcement in charge of the program say they have never lost one person who followed the rules, but that includes absolutely no contact with anyone from the…

Curse Workers #1 May 2010 On Sale: May 4, 2010 Featuring: Cassel Sharpe 320 pages ISBN: 1416963960 EAN: 9781416963967 Hardcover $17.99 Fantasy, Young Adult Paranormal Buy at Amazon.com White Cat 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…

Have you seen the gorgeous man on the cover of Haunting Warrior? I mean, seriously, do they get any sexier? If I saw him walking down the street would I throw caution, decorum and sanity to the wind and accost him…probably yes. (Okay, okay, absolutely yes…) Well, meet Rory MacGrath. I fell in love with Rory during the first draft of Haunting Warrior. It was about that time when the reserved and sometimes angry man began to show me his softer side. Disconnected from his past, his family, and even his heritage, Rory had a vulnerability that was a direct contradiction to his manly exterior. But even Rory knew that the front he presented was just that-a façade that might fool strangers, but couldn’t fool those who knew him. Or people like me who were about to fall in love with him. Tough on the outside and lost on the inside, I knew that all Rory needed was a woman who could help him see his own strengths-a woman who would challenge him to rise above the past that had crippled him emotionally. This woman would bring him back into the circle of the living. She couldn’t be just any…

Dark Elite #1 January 2010 On Sale: January 5, 2010 Featuring: Scott; Lily Parker 256 pages ISBN: 0451228863 EAN: 9780451228864 Paperback $6.99 Young Adult Paranormal Buy at Amazon.com Firespell by Chloe Neill New girl. New school. Old evil. From the author of the Chicagoland Vampires novels. A new series about a boarding school filled with something worse than homework. Lily’s parents have sent her to a fancy boarding school in Chicago filled with the ultra-rich. If that wasn’t bad enough, she’s hearing and seeing bizarre things on St. Sophie’s creepy campus. Her roommate, Scout, keeps her sane, but keeps disappearing at night. When one day Lily finds Scout running from real-life monsters, she learns the hard way that Scout is involved in a splinter group of rebel teens. They protect Chicago from demons, vamps, and dark magic users. It’s too bad Lily doesn’t have powers of her own to help. At least, none that she’s discovered yet… Start of a new and exciting magical young adult series. Excerpt CHAPTER ONE They were gathered around a conference table in a high-rise, eight men and women, no one under the age of sixty-five, all of them wealthy beyond measure. And they were…

House of Night #7 May 2010 On Sale: April 27, 2010 Featuring: Zoey 336 pages ISBN: 0312606168 EAN: 9780312606169 Hardcover $17.99 Young Adult Paranormal Buy at Amazon.com Burned by P. C. Cast, Kristin Cast The highly anticipated seventh book in the New York Times and USA Today bestselling House of Night series. When friends stop trusting each other, Darkness is there to fan the flames…. Things have turned black at the House of Night. Zoey Redbird’s soul has shattered. With everything she’s ever stood for falling apart, and a broken heart making her want to stay in the Otherworld forever, Zoey’s fading fast. It’s seeming more and more doubtful that she will be able pull herself back together in time to rejoin her friends and set the world to rights. As the only living person who can reach her, Stark must find a way to get to her. But how? He will have to die to do so, the Vampyre High Council stipulates. And then Zoey will give up for sure. There are only 7 days left… Enter BFF Stevie Rae. She wants to help Z but she has massive problems of her own. The rogue Red Fledglings are acting…

Some cool books coming out this month, including from adult author Sherrilyn Kenyon and deceased (or possibly undead) author Louisa May Alcott. And more! We start with the lovely and talented Jeri Smith-Ready. She’s already a successful author of grown up urban fantasy (WICKED GAME) and romantic fantasy (EYES OF CROW). Now she debuts a new YA series with SHADE. Mystery, ghosts, romance… This one is right up my alley. I asked Jeri a little about her spooky new project. RCM: So, what’s the pitch? Jeri: 16-year-old Aura can see ghosts. Then again, so can everyone around the world who was born after her. In fact, they have a word for the moment of her birth: the Shift. Aura suspects that the Shift might be connected to her missing mystery dad and an event that happened at Newgrange tomb in Ireland a year before her birth. Ghosts can be annoying at their best. At their worst, as dark, powerful “shades,” they can be deadly. So Aura’s major goal in life is to undo the Shift and make the ghosts go away. And then, her boyfriend dies and becomes a ghost. RCM: Well, there’s an obstacle to True Love for you….

What a wild week I’ve had: three signings attended (if I was a woman with super powers I could have gone to seven of interest), two author dinners, one reader lunch and one reader dinner. Today I go to our monthly tea and we’ll have a guest, Marie Bostwick. But first all this gadding about is expensive and second fun and third, exhausting. Why exhausting? Good question, I’ll tell you! Because I bought a bunch of books and oh, my, even YA ones. And now I’ve got to read them! All right I can say I’ve read YA in the recent past, after all, you’ve heard our stories of being there for at least three of the final Harry Potter release parties, which I’ll always remember until I die. They were fun and I doubt ever to be replicated no matter how hard they try to make a book or series so “important.” HP has the magical quality of reaching all generations. And it was in all the media: books, audio, movies, games. Only thing I know missing is the television and since The Wizarding World of Harry Potter™ is now open, they’ve covered the theme park version as well….