Happy Halloween!!

Have fun, be safe!

Your Unique Costume is a Rasta Mon

Where's da party mon?

What Totally Unique Halloween Costume Should You Wear?

So I Told You About My Favorite TV Heroes...

Now it's time for my favorite TV heroine--Max on Dark Angel. Yes, I know the show has come and gone, but I watched this show from the beginning and just loved it.

Max was tough, beautiful, and genetically enhanced. ;) She rode a hot motorcycle like there was no tomorrow. The action was non-stop, as well as the special effects. The second season had gotten really gritty and I was totally bummed when they cancelled the show, but while shopping the other day I can across the complete two seasons on DVD. Totally made my day. I know what to ask Santa for Christmas now. haha!

My Top Two Favorite TV Heroes (at the moment)...

Skeet Ulrich is one of my new favorites as Jake Green--good looking and intense acting on the new show Jericho. I have to admit I never thought Ulrich as great when he was younger in other films like Scream, and The Craft, but now that he's older, I love how he plays Jake Green. I like those heroes who always want to do what is right, risk their life, and have that mysterious shady past that keeps creeping up on them. =D

Good looking = CHECK
Intense = CHECK
Rebel = CHECK
Heroic tendencies = CHECK



Michael Weatherly is one hero I fell for in Dark Angel and I was thrilled when he reappeared in NCIS with his character Tony DiNozzo, where he plays a cocky, casanova, film lover and NCIS agent. Now NCIS is one of my fave, fave shows. (When are they going to bring these shows out on DVD, is what I want to know?) Okay, so DiNozzo doesn't have a shady past, but he has a serious side he only lets out in intense situations, such as when his teammates are in danger, then he gets all heroic and will do whatever it takes to save lives. And at the moment, there have been hints he's deep undercover and only he and the Director know what's going on. Very mysterious, indeed.

Good looking = CHECK
Intense (when it counts) = CHECK
Rebel (when it counts) = CHECK
Heroic tendencies = CHECK

Good looking television heroes that risk their lives to save others...do I ask for too much? Nah. ;)

What's Fresh with Ally Carter's I'd Tell You I Love You But Then I'd Have To Kill You

The Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women is a fairly typical all-girls school--that is, if every school teaches advanced martial arts in PE, chemistry always consists of the latest in chemical warfare, and everyone breaks CIA codes for extra credit in computer class. So in truth, while the Gallagher Academy might say it's a school for geniuses what they really mean is spies. But what happens when a Gallagher Girl falls for a boy who doesn't have a code name?

Cammie Morgan may be fluent in fourteen languages and capable of killing a man in seven different ways (three of which involve a piece of uncooked spaghetti), but the Gallagher Academy hasn't prepared her for what to do when she meets an ordinary boy who thinks she's an ordinary girl. Sure, she can tap his phone, hack into his computer, and track him through a mall without him ever being the wiser, but can she have a regular relationship with a regular boy who can never know the truth about her? Cammie may be an elite spy in training, but in her sophomore year, she's doing something riskier than ever--she's falling in love.

Read on to learn what's fresh about Ally's novel...

Hey, Ally, please tell us about your debut into YA fiction with I'D TELL YOU I LOVE YOU BUT THEN I'D HAVE TO KILL YOU (Hyperion, May 2006).

Ally: I'D TELL YOU I LOVE YOU BUT THEN I'D HAVE TO KILL YOU is about a girl who goes to an elite boarding school for girl spies but risks everything by falling for a normal boy who can never know the truth about her.

Could you share a bit about the main character of your book and what makes her unique?

Ally: Cammie is a very ordinary girl--or as ordinary as the daughter of two CIA agents can possibly be. In fact, she's so ordinary that her friends call her "The Chameleon" because she's incredibly good at blending into crowds--something every spy can appreciate. But one night Cammie is on a mission and a boy sees her--really sees her--for the first time. That, of course, is where the trouble starts.

Very fresh! Do tell, how did the idea for this novel come about?

Ally: My agent emailed me one day asking if I'd ever been interested in writing for teenagers. Honestly, I hadn't given it much thought, but that night I was home watching Alias on TV and suddenly the idea was just there. The whole story came together in about five seconds. It was pretty scary. And fun.

What do you hope readers will gain from reading this novel?

Ally: I think the most important message that this story conveys is that, whether you realize it or not, everyone has free will. Just because people expect certain things of you, and you expect certain things of yourself, doesn't mean your whole life is mapped out. You always have a say in how your life turns out, so make good choices.

Oh, and also people will learn many covert skills that can be quite helpful in spying on the crushes in their lives (some of which are more legal than others).

Sounds great! Thanks for sharing, Ally. Would you like to close with a novel you highly recommend and why?

Ally: One of my absolute favorite books of the last year has been Amazing Grace by Megan Shull. It's a fun and brilliantly written novel about a teenage tennis superstar who walks away from the game in her prime and moves to Alaska to reinvent herself. Everyone should check it out!

Ally Carter is the author of CHEATING AT SOLITAIRE, LEARNING TO PLAY GIN, and I'D TELL YOU I LOVE YOU BUT THEN I'D HAVE TO KILL YOU. She's currently at work on her fourth novel. She'd tell you about it, but then...well...you know. Check out an excerpt at her website, www.allycarter.com.

It's finally here. My very first cover.

(drumroll) Introducing the GRAFFITI GIRL cover...



It's fresh, it's hip, and it's purple.
It shouts: GRAFFITI GIRL.

And it's mine. ;)

*sigh*

What's Fresh with E. Lockhart's The Boy Book: A Study of Habits and Behaviors, Plus Techniques for Taming Them

The Boy Book: A Study of Habits and Behaviors, Plus Techniques for Taming Them is the sequel to The Boyfriend List, which is just out in paperback. The Boy Book is about Ruby, who in the first book plummeted from social butterfly to leper, rebuilding her life junior year of high school -- with the help of a guide to understanding the male sex that she wrote with her ex-friends.

The new, cheaper edition of the first Ruby Oliver book (The Boyfriend List) has a fun author Q&A at the back, plus provocative questions for your book club or reading group.

In The Boy Book, Rub confronts the secret about Noel,
mysterious notes from Jackson,
the interpretation of boy-speak,
the villainy of Cricket,
the horrors of the school retreat,
and the exploitation of hooters everywhere.

There are fruit roll-ups.

There is upper-regioning.
There are so many boys to choose from!
And there are penguins.
Preview it here.

Now read on for some fresh questions, E. was so kind to answer...

Hello E, please tell us about your latest novel, The Boy Book: A Study of Habits and Behaviors, Plus Techniques for Taming Them.

E: The Boy Book: A Study of Habits and Behaviors, Plus Techniques for Taming Them is the sequel to my earlier book, The Boyfriend List, which is spanking new in paperback this month as well. I'm interested in the social stratifications and attendant mortifications of high school -- and in heartbreak. I wanted to write about the aftermath of heartbreak in a suffocatingly small community.

And I wanted it to be funny.

And have footnotes.

Both are published by Delacorte, and the PB (Boyfriend List) and hardcover (Boy Book) released simultaneously Sept 26. Here's a nice quote: "Lockhart achieves the perfect balance of self-deprecating humor and self-pity in Ruby, and thus imbues her with such realism she seems to fly off the page." -- VOYA

Could you share a bit about the main character of your book and what makes her unique?

E: Roo is a scholarship student at a wealthy Seattle prep school. She lives on houseboat with two neurotic parents and in the first book goes from social butterfly to leper. Everyone pretty much hates her, thanks to countless debacles and misunderstandings and heartbreak. She sees a shrink twice a week for panic attacks, and has an encyclopedic memory for movies, both trashy and highbrow.

She's certainly interesting! How did the idea for this novel come about?

E: When I was writing The Boyfriend List, I got this idea that Roo and her friends (now ex-friends) kept a notebook in which they (wrote) all their musings on the male animal. Kind of a pseudo-scientific analysis of wolverine behavior -- only about boys. And suddenly, although at the time I was only halfway through writing the first story, I knew there should be a a second novel that was structured around that notebook.

What do you hope readers gain from reading The Boy Book?

E: I would like them to laugh so hard they feel slightly worried they won't catch their breath again, and maybe feel a little weepy at the end.

Oh, I have to read this book! Thanks for sharing, E. Let's close with a novel you highly recommend and why?

E: Gentlemen Prefer Blondes by Anita Loos. That book has some of the most idiosyncratic and wonderful first-person narration I've ever read, and it is flat-out hilarious.


To learn more about E. Lockhart and her latest release, The Boy Book: A Study of Habits and Behaviors, Plus Techniques for Taming Them visit her website, TheBoyfriendList.com. Also check out her ultra cool quiz, Find your dating destiny!