Nina Malkin's Blog
October 13, 2009
IF YOU'RE READING THIS BLARGH, you're reading. Ergo, you enjoy reading and don't need me to give you a reason to do so. But I will anyway, because readergirlz is doing this tribute to the Young Adult Library Services Association's Teen Read Week (18 October - 24 October). They've asked bloggers (do blarghers count?) to shout out YALSA's awesome event and reading in general.
So here's a reason to read — maybe for you it's reason #645,293. Or it might just be reason #1. The more you read, the b...
September 1, 2009
THE NOVEL IS IMMORTAL. Why else would it continue to exist with all the other amusements jockeying for your attention? The novel thrives because no other medium truly gets you inside a story, a character, a town, a world—or a heart, a brain, a soul, a spleen. A movie can show you; a video game can give you a gadget and a sense that you're doing something; but a piece of fiction invites you into thoughts, feelings, ideas, motives, longings, beliefs like nothing else. You read, you're there. You r
July 17, 2009
In a previous incarnation, it was my job to follow musicians around and listen to the records they made and opine about that in print. It was fun, a huge record collection ensued, and the swag was interesting (ask me sometime about the chastity belt I received via UPS). The experience also informed the novels 6X: The Uncensored Confessions and 6X: Loud, Fast, and Out of Control (see OTHER WRITING).
Music remains central to the quality of my life, but when I'm writing it's anathema, a distraction.
July 7, 2009
Thanks so much to everyone who responded to the "My First SWOON" series of guest blogs with stories to their own. More than 30 entrants. A lot! I don't believe that large response was generated by a chance to win a signed copy of SWOON as much as the fact that the emotions attached to this pivotal experience are simply that strong, that moving, you were compelled to share. I relished all the stories, from the pre-school swoons to the swoon-of-fruition following a 12-year crush. Some swoonies wer
July 2, 2009
June 29, 2009
So now you know just how bad a boy you magnetize. Must be something in the water. Or your genes. Or you jeans.
Racing headlong now towards the culmination of first SWOONS. Remember, you still have two more days to comment back with your own first SWOON and be entered to win a signed copy of SWOON. And you still have two more days to nag me about submitting my own rather awful admision...
Today we have a swell SWOON from the indomitable Micol Ostow, author of The Bradford Series of novels and ultim
June 26, 2009
We interrupt these “My First SWOONs” to bring you an important message. Judging by the response to “Sin & Dice Love Advice,” the romantic counseling service on this very website, a lot of plenty cool girls are dealing with some pretty bad boys. Are troubled types drawn to you like tornadoes to trailer parks? Take this quiz to see if your mojo is set on sin! Then read on to find out how to handle it.
1. A guy comes up to you at a party. His opening line is…
A. “Have you tried the bean dip?”
B. “Have
June 23, 2009
Many thanks to Aimee Friedman for sharing her passion for Paris. Ooh-la-la, as they say. We've so far had swooners swooning over songs, dogs, dancing, embarrassing rock stars, and now a city. Point being: Your first swoon doesn't have to be about a boy. So if you have a swoon to share, please do so by 30 June 2009. Comment back with your tale for a chance to win a signed copy of SWOON.
And so, the swooning continues...
Nancy Holder writes like a demon. She has more books to her credit now than mos
June 20, 2009
Thank you, Robin Wasserman, for swooning…and for dancing…and for sharing your playlist. Warning: One of the numbers on your list, New Order’s “Bizarre Love Triangle,” has been known to have strange effects on people. I have a friend who, back in the track’s heyday, would fall in love with the first boy who entered her line of vision while the song was playing. Has anyone else out there swooned for a song? Please do tell all. I’ve been remiss in reminding y’all of the “My First SWOON” contest—com
June 17, 2009
Many thanks to Lisa Schroeder for swooning in verse—and for giving me a new appreciation for Sammy Hagar...which is kind of perverse….
When people ask, “What’s your book about?” I simply refer them to the killer blurb Robin Wasserman wrote for the back cover of SWOON. As Robin’s fans know, her stuff is incredible—novels like those in the Seven Deadly Sins series, as well as Skinned and Crashed. (Holding your breath till its September release? Here’s a preview of the cover). Visceral, frightening
