Today's Guest: Novelist Monte Schulz, author of This Side of Jordan, son of Peanuts cartoonist Charles Schulz. When his father wrote adult characters, they sounded like muffled trombones. When Monte Schulz writes grown up dialogue, there is no doubt that the words are not from the mouths of babes. To wit: Something blunt struck Alvin... Continue Reading →
Today's Guest: Lisa McMann, YA novelist, Wake, Fade, Gone, The Unwanteds This is gonna take a minute. It was the last day of our first family vacation in two years and the three of us were unwinding in the enormous Barnes & Noble bookstore in Burlington, Vermont. My 13-year-old son Charlie found two young adult novels... Continue Reading →
The life of young adult novelist Sara Zarr has changed dramatically in the last three years, following publication of her first book, Story of a Girl. That book led her to be a finalist for the 2007 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature. She didn’t win, but as I told her in our... Continue Reading →
Regular listeners know I’m not prone to breathless hyperbole about my guests or their work. If I like a book I’ve read, I tell you straight out. And if I don’t like a book, you probably won’t hear the author interviewed on Mr. Media Radio because to me, lying isn’t worth the effort. Today, I’m... Continue Reading →
Dogs that can express themselves in a language we can all understand are nothing new. Remember the movie Cats & Dogs? One dog had the voice of Tobey McGuire, another the sonorous tones of Alec Baldwin. But how many dogs have written books about their adventures? Point for Chet the Dog, sidekick of Bernie Little... Continue Reading →
Valentine Roncalli is 35 and feeling every bit of her years. While her friends and siblings all have families of their own, she lives in her 80-year-old grandmother’s home, amongst all of her grandmother’s trinkets and memories, running her grandmother’s shoe company. Valentine wants—needs—a man. ADRIANA TRIGIANI podcast excerpt: "Thematically, the two things my... Continue Reading →
Today's Guest: James Dashner, novelist, The Maze Runner Recommendations are worth what you pay for them, so I don’t always accept them at face value. But the same literary agent who turned me on to young adult novelist Sara Zarr two years ago thought I’d also enjoy James Dashner’s new YA book, The Maze Runner,... Continue Reading →
How do the movie studios follow the humongous, year-after-year success of the Harry Potter movies? That is, where do you find a character and situation that will grab the imagination of everyone from elementary school students on through your grandmother? And craft tales that will make audiences come back for more? Again. And again. And... Continue Reading →
One of the most daring challenges in writing novels for young adults is transferring the four-color escapades of superheroes to narrative form and still retaining the boldness ad glory of the comic book medium—while adding meat to the bones of the structure. I think Thomas E. Sniegoski (website) accomplished that—and more—with his new novel... Continue Reading →
Today's Guest: Ann David, novelist, Bought: A Novel, Party Girl I’m probably not the target market for chick lit books, so I approached Anna David’s second novel, Bought, a little skeptically. On the other hand, who doesn’t enjoy a little fiction about high-end prostitution and the sex trade in Hollywood? What I didn’t expect... Continue Reading →
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