Jo Schaffer

We love libraries! And so does Andrew Buckley, author of HAIR IN ALL THE WRONG PLACES. Check out his books and his story about why he fell in love with libraries. Also, HAIR IN ALL THE WRONG PLACES 3 releases October 10, 2018, so now is the time to check out his hilarious series.

Welcome, Andrew Buckley!

I was a book addict from the word go. My parents made a priority to read to me at night before bed and I fell in love with stories at a young age. When they finally stopped reading to me at night (around 7 or 8 years old), that’s when I started.

I grew up in the north west of England in a little village called Lees. There wasn’t much to it; a baker, a butcher, a coffee shop, a church, an Elementary school, and a smattering of other shops that changed and expanded throughout the years. The place that I loved the most was the public library; a place I was completely shocked by because they allowed you to take books out. What was this magical place? They had books, lots of books, and you could just take them home provided you promised to bring them back. What a concept!

By age 9 I’d read all the Asterix and Obelix books and all the Tintin books. By age 10 I’d discovered and devoured all the Hardy Boys novels, and all the Famous Five novels (by Enid Blyton). At age 11 I read the bible from cover to cover (not a bad read, but that book of Numbers is a real downer) and discovered the Adrian Mole series. At age 12 I moved into adult fiction by reading Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton while vacationing in Canada (the country I would eventually move to and currently reside in). The Lees Public Library led me down all these adventurous paths and without that little building on Thomas Street in Lees, I never would have had such a wide access to literature. Without a doubt, it’s unlikely I would have become an author without the influence of the contents of that building.

Thank you, Lees Library, for entertaining, inspiring, and influencing me in my younger years! :)

HAIR IN ALL THE WRONG PLACES

What has he done? What’s happening to him? And what on Earth is that smell? For Colin Strauss, puberty stinks. Blackouts, hallucinations, and lapses in memory are the perils of growing up werewolf. Worse than that, Colin worries he might have had something to do with the recent attacks on the townspeople. He may have eaten a person. It doesn’t matter that it’s someone he doesn’t particularly like. What kind of boy goes around eating people? Foolishly, all Colin can think about is how Becca Emerson finally kissed him for the first time. Yep, hormones are afoot. Yikes! But girls will have to wait. Collin better get himself under control before someone else ends up hurt or worse … dead.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Andrew Buckley attended the Vancouver Film School’s Writing for Film and Television program. He pitched and developed several screenplay projects for film and television before completing his first two novels, DEATH, THE DEVIL AND THE GOLDFISH and STILTSKIN, both published by Curiosity Quills Press. Andrew also writes under the pen name ‘Jane D. Everly’ for his HAVELOCK series of novels.

His foray into writing for a younger audience resulted in the HAIR IN ALL THE WRONG PLACES series of books, published by Month9Books, part of the Georgia McBride Media Group.

February is National Library Lover’s Month, and Month9Books loves libraries! To show our appreciation, we’re sharing stories about libraries from our very own authors. Today Jamie Zakian, author of PROJECT EMERGENCE, is sharing her love for libraries. Her next book, SERPENTS AND SAVIORS, releases April 10. Add it to Goodreads today. 

Welcome, Jamie Zakian!

When I was growing up, my mom and I didn’t have much in our one-bedroom apartment, but we did have library cards. My mom always wished she could take me to amusement parks, vacations to see the world, ski trips in the Rocky, but as a single mother she could barely feed us both. The only thing she could do was take me to those places in my imagination, and that’s where the library came in. That scent of paper and ink that hits you when you first open the library door always brings a smile to my lips. It’s the scent of colonies on Mars, of mountainous castles in fairytale lands … it’s the scent of escape and wonder.

As an adult, I continue my weekly visits to my local library. Often times, the many rows of shelves with amazing books and tables with padded chairs are bare. So I asked a few of my friends if they knew it was free to get a library card and borrow books, and they did not. Since the library was and still is my savior, source of inspiration, and all around happy-place, I’d like to take a second and shameless promote this place of treasures. Your local library will give you access to thousands of books, from bestsellers and new releases to literary classics and nonfiction. You might not know this, but the library is more than just books. Most libraries have DVDs, video games, audiobooks, and so much more available to borrow. If you don’t live close to your local library that’s okay; they gotcha covered. Almost every library has online lending services, giving you instant access to eBooks and audiobooks.

In short, if you haven’t visited your local library you are missing out. February is National Library Lover’s Month, so gather the family, grab some friends and hit up your local library to get a free library card. The library is much more than just a building of books. It’s a place where any child can be a king or a queen for the day, where imagination reigns, and it’s a wonderful place to spend time with loved one.

SERPENTS AND SAVIORS releases April 10. Add it to Goodreads.

Haven’t read book 1? No problem!

Check out PROJECT EMERGENCE TODAY:

Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Goodreads / Kobo / Google Play

An ancient Hopi myth says people arrived on tiny silver pods that fell from the sky.

But the truth is far more terrifying.

Two-hundred fifty-eight teens are sent from a dying Earth to a terraformed Mars as part of the Emergence Program, mankind’s last hope before solar flares finish off their planet and species. Among the brave pioneers are sixteen-year-old Joey Westen and her twin brother, Jesse.

After only minutes in space, something triggers a total ship lock down.

With the help of their roommates, the Matsuda twins (notorious hackers and shady secret-keepers), Joey and Jesse stumble onto an extremist plot to sabotage the Emergence Program.

But Joey and Jesse didn’t travel to the deepest pits of space and leave their mother behind to be picked off in a high-tech tin can. They’ll lie, hack, ​and ​even kill to survive the voyage and make it to Mars.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

New Young Adult Books Coming Out Today! (January 30, 2018)

Let me know if I’ve missed any new releases and/or if you’ve added any of these titles to your TBR!

New Standalones and First in a Series: 

The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert

Reign the Earth by A.C. Gaughen

Say You’ll Remember Me by Katie McGarry

Keeper by Kim Chance

Down & Across by Arvin Ahmadi

The Dangerous Art of Blending In by Angelo Surmelis

The Upside of Falling Down by Rebekah Crane

Sequels: 

Gone Rogue (Wires & Nerves #2) by Marissa Meyer

Purple Hearts (Front Lines #3) by Michael Grant

Book clasps whooooooo

From top to bottom: xGT509 V4 1664 Springer 332.6 H77s Ranny fB C726S xfPA6519 A3 1480 xN7433.4 C655 U55 1995 xBX2079 G4 1610

All from the University of Iowa Special Collections.

Today we’re talking to Jo Schaffer, author of STANLEY & HAZEL, releasing May 15, 2018!

Q: Your book takes place in St. Louis in 1934. Why St. Louis? What do you love about St. Louis the most? 

Jo Schaffer: St. Louis is a beautiful and diverse city with an interesting and rich history. There have been people living in that area since Pre-Columbian times. Frontiersmen, French trappers and immigrants from all over the world have settled in St. Louis, and it was at one time one of the four largest and most influential cities in America. It is a fertile and vibrant place between where the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers flow. It has great museums, beautiful gardens and parks. It is a perfect place to find good food and watch some baseball. But, like most great places, St. Louis has a dark side. It has a long rap sheet of institutional racism and classism. Bigotry against and persecution of outliers has been a recurring theme in the story of St. Louis. During the Civil War the area was split in half and literally went to war with itself. There are some old and established power dynamics in St. Louis that I explore in my book. One of the things I love most about St. Louis is the drama and tension of it. It is like a microcosm of America and there is so much we can learn from the good and the bad things that have played out there over the centuries.

Q: Tell us more about your book! 

A: My book is an exploration of another time and place that is still so relevant to today. On the surface it is an emerging love story between two people who, by cultural norms, should not love one another. By crossing the established social boundaries, Stanley and Hazel learn to see past their differences and become galvanized and united by a common cause. Even though it addresses some serious issues, the story is also fun and looks at what it’s like to be young and to question “the way things are”. There is a dead body, a secret diary, forbidden love, society parties and street gangs. Something for everyone!

Q: What were your biggest hurdles while writing this book? Biggest celebrations?

A: Finding a good home for the book was tricky because it is a little different than what is commonly out there in the YA world. But I feel like that is an opportunity more than a barrier. I like the fact that my book has turned out to be different, fun and thought provoking. There were a few things that the characters did that came as a surprise as I wrote… they took on a life of their own. One thing that both Stanley and Hazel have in common is that they do not like to be told what to do! Even by their author. 

Q: Do you have any advice for aspiring writers? 

A: Read a wide variety of books. Don’t get stuck in a genre. Explore a variety of fiction, nonfiction and history. If you have a story idea that you are excited about but it’s not popular or trending, write it anyway! Tell the stories you are passionate about. Also, write often and let people read what you write and give honest feedback. It may take a while to get comfortable with criticism but it is the only way to get better at communicating to your reader in a rich and effective way.

Q: Finally, what are some of your favorite reads? TV shows? Movies?

A: I love to read just about anything. Some of my favorite books have been old school. Anything by Jane Austen, L.M. Montgomery, and Louisa May Alcott. Many of the classics from the nineteenth century as well as modern novels, including a lot of great Young Adult books. Most recently the Nameless trilogy by Jennifer Jenkins and anything by Jay Asher. TV shows I like span the decades. Buffy the Vampire Slayer changed my life. And I love shows like The Office, Parks and Rec, Stranger Things, This is Us and Speechless. When it comes to movies, I love classic film the best. Much of my book was inspired by movies from the 1930s like It Happened One Night, and The Thin Man mystery series. But I also grew up loving Star Wars and Indiana Jones. I like a lot of action films and creative independent films that make me think and examine things from new perspectives.

STANLEY & HAZEL

A great depression has gripped the city of St. Louis in 1934. Stanley, an orphaned newsy and son of police detective lives in a poor part of town hit especially hard by the economic downturn. One night, Stanley runs into Hazel, a restless debutante in waiting who has begun to question her posh lifestyle in the midst of the suffering she sees. She’s out and about without an escort and against her father’s wishes.

When they discover the body of a girl with her head bashed in by a baseball bat, the very different and separate realities of the two teens inform their decision. Together they will figure out what happened to her and bring those responsible to justice.

But getting involved with each other and digging into the secrets behind this murder earns them some powerful enemies, including a secret group seeking to rid society all those they deem “undesirable.” They’ve put into motion “The Winnowing”, a plan seeking to take over the city and enforce their will.

As Stanley and Hazel’s forbidden feelings for one another grow, their investigation turns deadly. Now, it is up to Stanley and his gang of street kids to save her before she becomes the next victim.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Jo Schaffer was born and raised in the California Bay Area in a huge, creative family. She is a YA novelist, speaker and a Taekwondo black belt.

She’s a founding member of the nonprofit organization that created Teen Author Boot Camp, one of the nation’s biggest conferences for teens where bestselling authors present writing workshops to nearly a thousand attendees.

Jo loves being involved in anything that promotes literacy and family. She is passionate about community, travel, books, music, healthy eating, classic films and martial arts. But her favorite thing is being mom to three strapping sons and a neurotic cat named Hero. They live together in the beautiful mountains of Utah.

www.joschaffer.com