This week the lovely Leatrice McKinney at Info Dump a la El is hosting Pitch Slam: Battle of the Bands!  In addition to pitching novels, each day this week we’re rocking Pitch Slam Twitter Parties. Today we’re sharing our writing playlists. My YA novel PERCEPTION is about a boy with a rare liver disorder who spends one wild...

Last night I saw the fabulous Metric in a surprise, last-minute show in Jacksonville. Front row, on the barricade. Pure awesome. Emily gets most of the press for Metric, but let me just say that guitarist Jimmy Shaw is also phenomenal. To celebrate a fantastic night, I’m starting my Music Lessons blog series. A novel tells a story...

I had planned to spend today’s blog raving about Mutemath, which I will do in a moment. But because I read and write in the YA world, I have to mention the whole mess with the National Book Awards. (Long story short: Lauren Myracle’s Shine was announced as being nominated and then removed from the...