Sarah Ockler's Blog, page 8
April 18, 2010
More Zombie Love with Author Stacey Jay
With Pet Monster locked safely in his office fighting zombies in Left4Dead while I listen on, taking copious mental notes for the upcoming zombie apocalypse, today's just an undead kind of Sunday. In keeping with the rising dead / crawling out of the cemetery theme, I'm here to show a little love for Stacey Jay's third book of YA zombie goodness, just out last month: My So-Called Death. I know you're not supposed to judge books by their covers, but I just have to say… any chick who can rock a...
April 11, 2010
The Jezebel Challenge: 75 Books Every Woman Should Read
We're taking a break from YA today to bring you The Jezebel Challenge, my 2010 reading project inspired by Jezebel.com's 75 Books Every Woman Should Read. I stumbled upon the 2008 compilation during one of my late night / early morning non-parentally-supervised Web wanderings after finding a copy of Erica Jong's Fear of Flying in a local thrift store and adding it to my Goodreads list.
I'm glad I discovered Jezebel's list, because while I have tons of resources for great YA...
April 7, 2010
Kristin Walker's Character Debut Party
Kristin Walker's A MATCH MADE IN HIGH SCHOOL was one of my favorite, laugh-out-loud books of 2010. I mean, high school is bad enough without having the added pressure of maintaining a fake marriage with some super-jock in a school-administrators-gone-horribly-awry project.
Of course, the best kind of hijinks ensue, and with lovable prankster Fiona's help, Kristin Walker sneaks some great, unpredictable realizations about life and relationships in between all the funny stuff. Check it out!
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April 4, 2010
The REAL Parent Problem in Young Adult Lit
In her April 1 New York Times essay, The Parent Problem in Young Adult Lit, Julie Just argues that today's YA literature is rife with bad or ineffective parents. She writes:
…the bad parent is now enjoying something of a heyday… some of the most sharply written and critically praised works reliably feature a mopey, inept, distracted or ready-for-rehab parent, suggesting that this has become a particularly resonant figure.
And:
Afflicted by anomie, sitting down to another dismal meal or rushing...
April 3, 2010
New Moon Review by Dad Ockler
Last night we visited my parents, and for some reason, perhaps alcohol and a lasagna-induced food coma were key factors, Dad agreed to stay up past his bed time to watch NEW MOON with us. He hadn't seen the first TWILIGHT, and while I'm sure the books are somewhere on his TBR list under all that Clive Cussler and Tom Clancy, he hasn't gotten to them yet. So I gave him like the thirty second summary and then we got to watching NEW MOON, appropriately subtitled TAYLOR LAUTNER'S ABS: A BRIEF...
April 2, 2010
Stuff I Wish I Knew Before I Got Published
Coming out of hiding today to visit the YA Rebels, talking about things I wish I knew about publishing before I got published!
Filed under: publishing
March 3, 2010
Author Interview: Stacey Jay
This is the week for undead love! I just watched both The Crazies and Zombieland with my husband (yeah, that's the kind of wife I am), so today's the perfect day to tell you about Stacey Jay's new zombie tale, UNDEAD MUCH?. You may remember our friend Stacey from such zombie lore as YOU ARE SO UNDEAD TO ME, her January 2009 YA debut and book one in this fun-dead series.
(Hey, it's early, people. Please laugh at my bad zombie jokes and kindly shamble along…)
Anyway… today we're chatting with S...
March 1, 2010
West Valley School Visit & The Trouble With Boys
Earlier this month, I spent the day hanging out with ninth and tenth graders at West Valley Central School (about 45 miles south of Buffalo). We talked about the importance of writing and communication skills, learning the rules and knowing when to break them, following your dreams, the nuts and bolts of becoming a published author, and finally, that age-old dilemma…
Why do boys have to act like such… boys? Seriously.
When I write about boys in my novels, they tend to be sensitive, mature...
West Valley School Vist & The Trouble With Boys
Earlier this month, I spent the day hanging out with ninth and tenth graders at West Valley Central School (about 45 miles south of Buffalo). We talked about the importance of writing and communication skills, learning the rules and knowing when to break them, following your dreams, the nuts and bolts of becoming a published author, and finally, that age-old dilemma…
Why do boys have to act like such… boys? Seriously.
When I write about boys in my novels, they tend to be sensitive, mature...
February 18, 2010
Author Interview: Shani Petroff
As an inquisitive teen, I spent many long hours contemplating the important questions of our times. Why are we here? What do I want to be when I grow up? Why are cheese fries so awesome? And… is my dad the devil? (Of course I don't wonder that now, Dad!)
Well, in author Shani Petroff's teen series, Angel's dad really is the devil. The first book, BEDEVILED: DADDY'S LITTLE ANGEL, launched last summer. Shani is now celebrating the release of the second in the series, BEDEVILED: THE GOOD, THE...
