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Early last week, I was fortunate enough to get in touch with an amiable and talented author: Marie Lu. You might have heard of her through the blogosphere, her upcoming debut LEGEND is Putnam Children's Lead Title for Fall '11, set to hit your shelves this November. Not only was Marie more than happy to send an ARC to me all the way down here in Australia, but she was also very willing to let me host an interview here, despite the length of my list of questions. So, without further ado, I present Miss Marie Lu! I'm really anticipating your debut novel LEGEND, the first in a trilogy it seems, and judging by its Goodreads page, I'm certain that there are quite a few others who are as well. What can we expect? Thank you so much, Nina! I really hope you'll enjoy it when it's out. As for what you can expect from LEGEND: a rebellious boy vigilante, a super-intelligent girl prodigy, a dystopian Los Angeles, puzzles, parkour, romance, and lots of action. An...

Oh, wow. It's been a while since I've blogfested, particularly because I stupidly figured that I wouldn't have time to do the A-Z this month. I now bequeath to you this . I'm currently in Nowra, which is tubuggery, so I'm hoping that in timing this post, it'll actually appear in time. The rules? Six characters max (Good thing, since my main cast is six), I must describe their appearance, then cast them, then describe reasons why I've selected said actor. Ready? Break. anna blackley The youngest of the team at eighteen, Anna is in possession of the most developed of their Gifts, illusion. She is an empath and able to generate wormholes through her illusions. She's curious, meddling, sensitive and hyper-active. She exerts a fistful of quirks in almost everything she does. She curses like a sailor, if they substituted swears for others such as 'smurf' and 'buttnugget'. She also forms portmanteaus mid-speech and is overly loquacious. descript...

White Cat Author:  Holly Black Series: Curse Workers #1 Release Date:  May 2010 Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books Pages: 320 Source:  Giveaway win Rating:   Buy it:   Amazon | BookDepository | Barnes&Noble 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 th...

I go to the movies often, more with my friends than with family or the nonexistent boyfriend. I also seem to arrive first. Once, after I texted one of said friends about her whereabouts, I received: I'll be there in five minutes. If not, read this again . On other occasions, I've received quick replies quoting THE DIVINE COMEDY or Lord Nelson or Thackeray or Humphrey Bogart or Marilyn Manson or Miley Cyrus. These are average teenage girls. They pierce bits of their bodies and gossip and whine and flunk maths tests and drink and attempt to drive. Their parents still treat them like they're eight, then tell them to act like a grown up. They curse and scream and bitch. They hate their bodies, their man hands their fat thighs. They obsess over films and people and move on to something new tomorrow. They're hot and cold and you shouldn't call them on it. They are the greatest liars and con artists in the world. And that is why you cannot possibly con a teenager into beli...

I spent this morning trudging through a rewrite of one of my chapters. I soon decided to waste my day on the internet, also watching Se7en , with B-Pitt and The Man Who is In Everything. Somehow, I got onto YouTube and to searching book trailers. Quick, quick, before I begin: Changes have been made to the site that are not quite visible from the homepage. So, Who is She? the page, is now expanded on and includes a picture of my face (don't all rush at once, I know you want to order a hit on me). There is also a new page! My Work. That is the first place where I have included information on my novel REVENIR (RETURN as I call it in posts) anywhere on the internet-slash-blogosphere. Check it out to read up and possibly understand all that I've been yapping on about for the four-odd months that I've been writing this blog. Anyway... Personally, I am pro book trailers. They are fun and easy to access and they help psych up fans for upcoming debuts or new additions to beloved se...

I find it odd how I can write about people being maimed and killed in explosions or through axe-wielding zombie Nazis or I can sit around thinking about how a telekinetic can kill someone in the most terrible of ways, but after writing one intense argument between two of my main characters, I feel displaced from the world and need to take a shower to calm my red-facedness down. Admittedly, this was an argument-to-destroy-a-friendship thing and drawing it out bit by bit was one of the most difficult things I've ever done. And it's not even finished, it's just sitting there on my desktop in script format. It's not even going to be in the damn book. This scene has existed for three years now. I formulated the whole concept of it at thirteen, when I first started to string this novel of mine together. I never wrote it. I didn't even know what was said or how emotional it got or even what subjects it touched on - I just knew the outcome and I knew the general message of ...