HATE LIST by Jennifer Brown

Jennifer Brown is the author of HATE LIST, a YA novel coming out in September 2009. As a two-time winner of The Erma Bombeck Global Humor award and weekly columnist for The Kansas City Star, as well as Saturday Featured Blogger for Mom2MomKC.com, Jennifer spends a lot of time dressing up her dog for laughs and thinking of new ways to works words such as "Puh-lease" and "Ch-yeah!" into sentences. Jennifer grew up in the Kansas City, Missouri area, where she still lives with her husband, three kids, and whole herd of uncooperative pets.

Instead of an interview with Jennifer, I'm posting a letter from Jessica (main character in Hate List) to my teen advice column for the daring.

Dear Eva,
There's this girl, Valerie, at my school. We've always been enemies, but... well, something really awful happened at our school... and she sort of saved my life that day.

The problem is, I never liked Valerie before. We never got along. And now I kind of owe her. Plus, I have a feeling she's not as bad as everyone thinks she is. I've changed a lot since that day, and I think maybe she has, too.

Everyone pretty much hates Valerie now, and she knows it. She hangs around like a ghost at school, all by herself, never talking to anyone. I can tell she's really lonely and sad.

I think maybe we could be friends, if she'd just let me in. I'm trying to get through to her, but I'm having a really hard time getting her to trust me. How do I get her to see that I'm not out to hurt her? Should I just leave her alone?

Jessica

Dear Jessica,
Trust is a hard thing to give. I know because I totally didn’t trust my sister, Roz, until recently. She didn’t deserve it. She chased after every boy I ever broke up with. Plus she had/has a serious blabbing problem.

It sounds like Valerie could use a friend right now. Sometimes the best way to earn someone’s trust is to show that you’ve changed. That’s what Roz did. Actions speak louder than a whole bunch of hot air, if you know what I mean :D.

There are risks of reaching out to her, of course. Fwooosh! Yes, that’s the sound of your rep going down the toilet. But you said you owed her. The course of true friendship never did run smooth. *

Best of luck!

Eva

*Apologies to Shakespeare (who's dead yanno)

About Hate List
Five months ago, Valerie Leftman’s boyfriend, Nick, opened fire on their school cafeteria. Shot trying to stop him, Valerie inadvertently saves the life of a classmate, but is implicated in the shootings because of the list she helped create. A list of people and things they hated. The list her boyfriend used to pick his targets.

Now, after a summer of seclusion, Val is forced to confront her guilt as she returns to school to complete her senior year. Haunted by the memory of the boyfriend she still loves and navigating rocky relationships with her family, former friends and the girl whose life she saved, Val must come to grips with the tragedy that took place and her role in it, in order to make amends and move on with her life.

Find out more about Jennifer and Hate List at her website: http://www.jenniferbrownYA.com

Or buy her book:

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Hate-List-Jennifer-Brown/dp/0316041440/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1251761088&sr=1-1

Indiebound: http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780316041447

Website at last!

Creating a website turned out to be harder than I imagined. It doesn't help that I'm a cyber-doofus, with only the slimmest grasp of html. And it took me four months of hair-pulling type frustration before I involved a professional in the project.

But now (drum roll).........




Check it out. www.laurenbjorkman.com

Debness Giveaway

This is a monthly contest you don't want to miss--a bag of goodies from the 2009 Debutantes. There's something in the bag from me, too!

Go here to enter.

New literary agency

Recently, I featured Chris Richman of Firebrand as a talented new agent looking for your novel.

Today I saw a notice that Chris has left Firebrand and teamed up with Michael Stearns and another agent to form a new agency, Upstart Crow Literacy. Michael Stearns has worked in many capacities. I had a consultation with him ten years ago at a conference in Honolulu. He was an editor at Harcourt at the time. He impressed me with his editorial insights.

Here's a message from Michael Stearns:

The first week of August marks the debut of a new agency, Upstart Crow Literary. Joining me will be Chris Richman
and Danielle Chiotti, both of whom cut their teeth as agents at Firebrand. Chris and Danielle possess that mix of literary
savvy, good taste, and dedication to their authors and books that marks them as either potentially crazy or simply
crazily dedicated. I feel fortunate to embark on this new venture with the two of them, as well as with our talented list of authors, all of whom will be following us to our new home. These days you can find me at michael@upstartcrowliterary.com, or a michael@tinderbox-books.com.

We'll be making our first Upstart Crow submissions next week, and when the site goes live the week after that, I hope you'll stop by and take a look at what we've got in the works. And we all look forward to working with you from our new perch here at Upstart Crow.

Michael Stearns
Upstart Crow Literary, LLC
718-360-8809
michael@upstartcrowliterary.com
www.upstartcrowliterary.com

Go check out their site, and then polish up that manuscript.

Feast of Goodies

I haven't blogged in a long while. My excuse--vacation with the family. But I'm coming out of hibernation because the monthly contest over at the Feast of Awesome is too good to pass up.

Click on the link below and leave a comment. The deadline is midnight tonight, so don't delay!!!!

CONTEST LINK

First Book Review for My Invented Life

I just got my first online review of My Invented Life on After Ellen. 

And it's good!!!!

Check it out here!

meet 8 (!) amazing MG and YA book editors

Calling all aspiring MG and YA novelists! This week and next, I am posting interviews with:

Molly O’Neill of HarperCollins
Brian Farrey of Flux
Joy Peskin of Viking
Anica Rissi of Simon Pulse
Madeline Smoot of CBAY Books
Miriam Hees of Blooming Tree Press
Reka Simonsen of Henry Holt
and
Jim Thomas of Random House

Come check out these truly awesome editors at --

http://community.livejournal.com/classof2k9/