Thursday, May 1, 2014

Announcing the May Author in the Spotlight

Announcing the May Author in the Spotlight

Happy May Day Everyone!!  My students are walking in the annual Heart of the Beast May Day Parade on May 4th this year.  They have been hard at work for the past month making masks as part of the parade theme.  Pay attention to my Facebook page as I will post pics on Sunday.

This month's author recently won the Minnesota Book Award for her first book and just released the cover of her second book TODAY!!  We met at a author event, in January when she introduced Laurie Halse Anderson.

I am so happy to feature Young Adult author, Carrie Mesrobian.  Her books are going to knock your socks off.

Here are the synopsis from Goodreads:

Sex & Violence


AT FIRST YOU DON'T SEE THE CONNECTION.

Sex has always come without consequences for seventeen-year-old Evan Carter. He has a strategy--knows the profile of The Girl Who Would Say Yes. In each new town, each new school, he can count on plenty of action before he and his father move again. Getting down is never a problem. Until he hooks up with the wrong girl and finds himself in the wrong place at very much the wrong time.

AND THEN YOU CAN'T SEE ANYTHING ELSE.

After an assault that leaves Evan bleeding and broken, his father takes him to the family cabin in rural Pearl Lake, Minnesota, so Evan's body can heal. But what about his mind?

HOW DO YOU GO ON, WHEN YOU CAN'T THINK OF ONE WITHOUT THE OTHER?

Nothing seems natural to Evan anymore. Nothing seems safe. The fear--and the guilt--are inescapable. He can't sort out how he feels about anyone, least of all himself. Evan's really never known another person well, and Pearl Lake is the kind of place where people know everything about each other--where there might be other reasons to talk to a girl. It's annoying as hell. It might also be Evan's best shot to
untangle sex and violence.

Perfectly Good White Boy (to be released in Oct, 2014)


Sean Norwhalt can read between the lines.

"You never know where we'll end up. There's so much possibility in life, you know?" Hallie said.

He knows she just dumped him. He was a perfectly good summer boyfriend, but now she's off to college, and he's still got another year to go. Her pep talk about futures and "possibilities" isn't exactly comforting. Sean's pretty sure he's seen his future and its "possibilities" and they all look disposable.

Like the crappy rental his family moved into when his dad left.

Like all the unwanted filthy old clothes he stuffs into the rag baler at his thrift store job.

Like everything good he's ever known.

The only hopeful possibilities in Sean's life are the Marine Corps, where no one expected he'd go, and Neecie Albertson, whom he never expected to care about.

"We're something else. Some other thing. I don't know what you'd call it. Maybe there's a word, though. Maybe I'll think of it tomorrow, when it won't matter," Neecie said.


May is going to be an awesome month.  You can expect two book reviews ( I got an early ARC of Perfectly Good White Boy.  Yay), a contest, an author interview and a guest post.  Please visit Carrie at http://carriemesrobian.com/  Be sure to tell her I said Hello!!