Dining with Lauren Baratz-Logsted

The Dining with Authors series is back today with prolific author Lauren Baratz-Logsted.

Since 2003, Lauren has had 14 books published with at least 6 more to come. She has written for adults, teens, tweens and young readers. Before being published, Lauren was an independent bookseller, a reviewer, a freelance editor and a sort-of librarian. You can read more about her work at http://www.laurenbaratzlogsted.com/.

In addition to writing and reviewing good books, Lauren is heavily involved with several writing groups online. She is always generously offering writing advice and support to other writers (including me!). Her young adult novel Crazy Beautiful, a contemporary tale about a boy with hooks for hands and a gorgeous girl who meet on their first day at a new school, is being released this Monday!


Tamara: Welcome to the Girardi Diner. For this interview, imagine we are sitting across from each other in an adorable diner, sipping tea or coffee, enjoying a slice of our favorite cake or pie (mine's cherry pie!). It's much more fun that way!

Lauren: I’ll take a lime diet Pepsi and strawberry cream pie!

Tamara: If you could have dinner with any one of your characters, whom would you choose, and what would your character eat?

Lauren: Lucius Wolfe from Crazy Beautiful. Whatever he chose to eat, he'd have to eat it carefully, because he's still self-conscious about having hooks for hands.

Tamara: What's your favorite vacation spot?

Lauren: Because my daughter is nine, I'll say a cruise ship.

Tamara: What was your favorite musical group/singer when you were in high school?

Lauren: Led Zeppelin

Tamara: What is the funniest prank played on OR by you?

Lauren: Gack! How boring am I? I can't even think of one by or on me right now! The closest would be this past April Fool's. My nine-year-old short-sheeted my bed but only on my husband's side. He thought it was hysterical - that she even knew how to do it and that she chose to only prank him, not me.

Tamara: When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?

Lauren: A psychologist or writer. One night at dinner, when I was around 12, I did mention that I might like to be a singer. Much laughter followed - kind of like in a Charlie Brown cartoon - so I realized that was probably out.

Tamara: What question do you get asked most often about your writing? How do you answer it?

Lauren: Q: "Where do your ideas come from?" A: "The Idea Fairy."

Tamara: Gotta love that Idea Fairy! Do you believe in ghosts? Why or why not?

Lauren: Surprisingly enough, given that I just confessed a belief in The Idea Fairy, I don't believe in ghosts. But that's because I've never seen any evidence of any. If and when I do, I promise I'll change my mind.

Thanks so much for stopping by the diner for this interview, and congratulations on the upcoming release of Crazy Beautiful!

Dining with Alyson Noël

The Dining with Authors series has been so fun for me. I hope you're enjoying it, too!

Today, we have bestselling YA author Alyson Noël. If you haven't discovered Alyson's Immortal series, stop reading this and go to the bookstore right now. Go ahead. We'll wait for you.

Alyson is the #1 New York Times, USA Today, and Publisher’s Weekly bestselling, award-winning, author of nine novels for teens and adults, including EVERMORE and BLUE MOON. Her books have won the National Reader’s Choice Award, made numerous top ten lists, chosen for the CBS Early Show’s “Give the Gift of Reading” segment, and selected for Seventeen Magazine’s “Hot List” and Beach Book Club Pick. She lives in Laguna Beach, CA where she’s working on her next book. You can visit her at: www.alysonnoel.com or www.immortalsseries.com


Tamara: Alyson, if you could have dinner with any one of your characters, whom would you choose, and what would that character eat?
Alyson: Well, I’d have to choose Damen—for purely shallow reasons of course!! He would sip a glass of elixir and gaze into my eyes while I’d try not to drip spaghetti down the front of my dress!

Tamara: What's your favorite vacation spot?
Alyson: Well, funny you should ask because I happen to have several. For lying by the pool/beach and reading—Hawaii, or more specifically Maui & Lanai. For big city fun (in the US)- New York- I love it there, though Chicago runs an awfully close second! For international big city fun- Paris- I love, love, love it there! For an exotic get away- Marrakech-it’s completely enchanting!

Tamara: What was your favorite musical group/singer when you were in high school?
Alyson: Oh, here comes the embarrassing part! Well fine, here we go, I, Alyson Noël once pledged allegiance to Adam Ant. I was ready to join his Ant Nation and listen to nothing but Ant Music. This was one of my shorter lived crushes, but still, there you go. Though I’m happy to add that I still had some small smidgen of cool left for the likes of David Bowie, U2, The Clash, The Sex Pistols, etc. Mind you, this all took place back in the eighties!

Tamara: What is the funniest prank played on OR by you?
Alyson: Well, I’m much more of a jokester than a prankster, but back when I was a flight attendant, I was performing the safety demo one day, and when we got to the part where we showed the “safety demonstration card’ that can be found in “the seatback pocket in front of you”—I didn’t realize it, but my fellow crew members, who were also good friends of mine, had attached a note to mine that said- “Date Me! Ask How!” When all the passengers erupted into laughter, I discovered what they’d done and I have to say, I thought it was pretty hilarious too!

Tamara: That is pretty hilarious. When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?
Alyson: A princess, a mermaid, and an author. In that order.

Tamara: What question do you get asked most often about your writing? How do you answer it?
Alyson: “Where do you get your ideas from” seems to be the most common one—and my answer is always: Life! I steal from my own life on a regular basis.

Tamara: Do you believe in ghosts? Why or why not?
Alyson: I’ve no doubt that the soul or some form of energy lives on long after the physical body is gone. I’ve experienced way too many unexplainable phenomenons to think otherwise!

Tamara: Such cool answers. I'm really jealous about your travel hotspots. I wish I could teleport there now! Thanks again for participating!
Alyson: THANK YOU FOR HOSTING ME!!!

Dining with Marlene Perez

The Dining with Authors series is back today with young adult writer Marlene Perez. Her next novel The Comeback will be released August 1.

The book tells the story of Sophie Donnelly, who is one half of the most popular and powerful couple in school, until new girl Angie Vogel shows up and compromises everything. Angie steals Sophie's starring role in the school play, and, worse, her super-popular boyfriend. Sophie has been quickly dispatched to social Siberia, but not for long--she'll do anything it takes to make a triumphant comeback.

I fell in love with Marlene's "Dead IS" series over the past few months because of the great paranormal elements she includes in her fictional town of Nightshade where loveable Daisy Giordano lives amidst psychics, werewolves, vampires, and doppelgangers. The books are fun and romantic, without a doubt worth reading.

Marlene was born in Iowa and now lives in Orange County, California. Her work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times and her novels have been featured in Seventeen and Cosmopolitan. Her novel DEAD IS THE NEW BLACK was selected as an American Library Association Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers.

Marlene, welcome to the Girardi Diner. For this interview, imagine we are sitting across from each other, sipping tea or coffee, enjoying a slice of our favorite cake or pie (mine's cherry pie!). It's much more fun that way!

Tamara: If you could have dinner with any one of your characters, whom would you choose, and what would that character eat?

Marlene: I'd have dinner with Daisy, my main character in the DEAD IS series. She'd cook and eat. Or we'd go to Slim's Diner for a cheeseburger. I'd say Sophie Donnelly, the main character in my upcoming release THE COMEBACK, but I'd probably somehow end up with food poisoning if I dined with her.

Tamara: Yeah, you'd probably want to avoid that. What's your favorite vacation spot?

Marlene: My favorite family vacation is a quick trip to Pismo Beach, Ca, but I'm dying to go to England to do research and soak up the atmosphere.

Tamara: What was your favorite musical group/singer when you were in high school?

Marlene: I can't name just one! I love music. If I had to pick one, I'd say David Bowie or Prince, but that makes me sound much cooler than I was. I also liked Rick Springfield and the Bay City Rollers.

Tamara: What is the funniest prank played on OR by you?

Marlene: Hmm. Funny pranks? When I was in college, I lived in a house with three other girls. We had a bunch of people over, but I left to do a quick errand. When I came back, all the furniture in the house had been moved to different rooms. So the sofa was in the kitchen, etc. That was pretty funny.

Tamara: When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?

Marlene: A writer. Or someone who got paid to read all day.

Tamara: What question do you get asked most often about your writing? How do you answer it?

Marlene: Did I read TWILIGHT before I wrote DEAD IS THE NEW BLACK? And I answer that although I enjoyed TWILIGHT, I was more inspired by Anne Rice's VAMPIRE LESTAT books and two television shows, DARK SHADOWS, a television show featuring the vampire Barnabas Collins, which my older sister used to watch while she baby sat me, and BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, which I absolutely adored. I honestly think paranormal writers who are already publishing today were more influenced by some of those cultural icons than by Twilight. It's the next generation of authors who possibly will be inspired by the Twilight saga, in my opinion.

Tamara: Do you believe in ghosts? Why or why not?

Marlene: Yes, I believe in ghosts. I've seen some very strange things. And besides, I like to keep an open mind.

Marlene, thanks so much for stopping by to answer some questions for us! Good luck with THE COMEBACK book release August 1.

Next week, we'll be dining with Immortals author Alyson Noel. See you then!

Dining with Tina Ferraro

I’m sooooo excited to kick off my Dining with Authors series today with Tina Ferraro, who writes fun, romantic tales for teens. In May, I read her book The ABC’s of Kissing Boys and loved it!

Tina is the author of three Delacorte Press young adult novels, Top Ten Uses for an Unworn Prom Dress, How to Hook a Hottie, and The ABC’s of Kissing Boys. Her books have received many kudos, including a personal endorsement from Twilight author Stephenie Meyer, a 2008 American Bookseller Association Book Sense Award, and nominee status for the 2009 American Library Association Best Young Adult Book and 2009 Romance Writers of America for Best Young Adult Novel. Her fourth YA novel, When Bad Flings Happen to Good Girls, will be released in 2010.

How to Hook a Hottie is a Romance Writers of America RITA Award finalist for Best Young Adult Book. The book features Kate DelVecchio, who plans to be a millionaire before she's 21. When she agrees to go to a sports banquet with a hotshot baseball player, she stumbles upon a possible cash cow. The rest of the school is amazed that the no-nonsense Kate could hook such a hottie, and one by one approach her for help hooking their own. She doesn't know anything about getting guys, but for $100.00 a pop, she's more than willing to try, including inventing a 6-step-plan on How to Hook a Hottie. And how could that possibly backfire?

Tina lives behind a computer in Los Angeles with her rocket scientist husband, a cat who bites, and whichever of their three young adult kids happens to be home.


Tamara: Welcome to the Girardi Diner. For this interview, imagine we are sitting across from each other in an adorable diner, sipping tea or coffee, enjoying a slice of our favorite cake or pie (mine's cherry pie!). It's much more fun that way!

Tina: Oh, yes, coffee, please, and pass me some of that cherry pie! Yum...

Tamara: If you could have dinner with any one of your characters, whom would you choose, and what would that character eat?

Tina: Well, my heroine, Kate, from How to Hook a Hottie, is a cheeseburger freak. I am so-so about them... But I do love the Bleunami Burger at Island’s. So settle me a booth with Kate, order up two of those hot, drippy bleu cheeseburgers, some onion rings, two iced teas. We’re good to go!

Tamara: What's your favorite vacation spot?

Tina: We have a family home in northern Italy, and for years, we packed our kids up for summer vacations there. We’d be like the locals, cooking, taking walks and afternoon naps, and visiting with family. But we haven’t been back in a while now since our kids have gotten older and are, a-hem, less content to be without their friends and the internet.

Tamara (who’s so jealous about your last answer): What was your favorite musical group/singer when you were in high school?

Tina: If I had to name just one, I’d say The Beatles, although they were already broken up and into their solo careers by that point.

Tamara: What is the funniest prank played on OR by you?

Tina: I was in high school. My brother and family friend--both younger--poured themselves full glasses of milk with lunch, and me just a tiny drop in a plastic cup. I arrived at the table and they said, “Hey, let’s pour milk on our heads!” I tilted my cup, saw nothing, thought they were complete idiots, and said, “Sure.” I poured mine, they didn’t. I ended up with milk dribbling down my face. They screamed with laughter. And to this day, I STILL get teased by both of them. Yeah, yeah.

Tamara: When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?

Tina: An author, wife and mom! And believe me, there were long periods where I didn’t think the right guy, a baby, or selling a book would ever happen, so they all feel like big accomplishments.

Tamara: What question do you get asked most often about your writing? How do you answer it?

Tina: Lots of readers ask how they can find a guy like my heroes. And I have to tell them that I’m no help there. However, as my kids and their friends can attest, I DO have an uncanny ability to denote secret crushes. I can often see subtle changes in people’s eyes and body movements that speak louder than words or overt actions. So some of the “tips” in How to Hook a Hottie on how to tell if you’ve got a chance with a person really DO have some weight, especially the one about the wristwatch. It works, people!

Tamara: Do you believe in ghosts? Why or why not?

Tina: Interesting that you ask this because recently we did this theme at the Buzz Girls blog to celebrate the release of Marley Gibson’s Ghost Huntress series. I told the story about my first apartment and how “something” that felt like a cat used to press against me in my sofa bed. When I changed positions, it would pause, then settled back in at a slightly different spot. I never saw anything, though. And when I moved to a different neighborhood, never felt it ever again. So that said, yes...I am definitely open to the idea of the spirit world.

Tamara: Thanks so much for stopping by the diner for this interview! Good luck with the Rita Award, and keep writing, so we can keep reading!

Tina: Thanks, this was FUN.

***For a chance to win a copy of Tina’s How to Hook a Hottie, post a comment below telling us something you’ve done or seen done to hook a hottie! Be sure to leave your email address, so I can email if you win!


Learn more about Tina and her books by checking out these links:


Tina Ferraro
Buzz Girls Blog
ABCs of Kissing Boys
Top Ten Uses for an Unworn Prom Dress
How to Hook a Hottie