The Darkest Part of the Forest – Hazel is a fighter, Ben is a gay artist, and Faeries "have come to exact their price"

The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black

Children can have a cruel, absolute sense of justice. Children can kill a monster and feel quite proud of themselves. A girl can look at her brother and believe they’re destined to be a knight and a bard who battle evil. She can believe she’s found the thing she’s been made for.

Hazel lives with her brother, Ben, in the strange town of Fairfold where humans and fae exist side by side. The faeries’ seemingly harmless magic attracts tourists, but Hazel knows how dangerous they can be, and she knows how to stop them. Or she did, once.

At the center of it all, there is a glass coffin in the woods. It rests right on the ground and in it sleeps a boy with horns on his head and ears as pointy as knives. Hazel and Ben were both in love with him as children. The boy has slept there for generations, never waking.

Until one day, he does…

As the world turns upside down and a hero is needed to save them all, Hazel tries to remember her years spent pretending to be a knight. But swept up in new love, shifting loyalties, and the fresh sting of betrayal, will it be enough?

Check out the creepy–and quite awesome–book trailer:



Add your review of "The Darkest Part of the Forest" in comments!

The Coldest Girl In Coldtown - Urban Fantasy Horror with a Transgender Character

The Coldest Girl In Coldtown by Holly Black

Tana lives in a world where walled cities called Coldtowns exist. In them, quarantined monsters and humans mingle in a decadently bloody mix of predator and prey. The only problem is, once you pass through Coldtown’s gates, you can never leave.

One morning, after a perfectly ordinary party, Tana wakes up surrounded by corpses. The only other survivors of this massacre are her exasperatingly endearing ex-boyfriend, infected and on the edge, and a mysterious boy burdened with a terrible secret. Shaken and determined, Tana enters a race against the clock to save the three of them the only way she knows how: by going straight to the wicked, opulent heart of Coldtown itself.

And yes, one of the character is revealed to be transgender. No, I won't tell you who... Add your review of "The Coldest Girl In Coldtown" in comments!

Zombies Vs. Unicorns: A Short Story Anthology with Gay and Lesbian Characters!

Zombies Vs. Unicorns, Edited by Holly Black and Justine Larbalestier

I found out about "Zombies Vs. Unicorns" when I interviewed Scott Westerfeld at KidLitCon 2011:




Reading this anthology was remarkably fun.

The stories are intercut with the ongoing argument between Justine and Holly, about which are better, Zombies or Unicorns.  And, perhaps more important, which are better to write about?

The anthology includes twelve alternating skin-shedding and spiral-horned adventures, three of which have main queer characters:


The Highest Justice by Garth Nix

A Princess' journey to her father, with her recently dead and now Zombie mother/Queen, wouldn't be possible without the help of Elibet.  A Unicorn. Who has his own view of justice.


Love Will Tear Us Apart by Alaya Dawn Johnson

A romantic gay teen Zombie story, it's a new twist on the I-love-you-but-our-love-is-impossible theme.  You're a gay kid, you get some disease that turns you into a Zombie, and Jack, the incredibly hot guy you're crushing on smells like the most delicious macaroni and cheese ever.


Purity Test by Naomi Novik

Down on her luck, wearing a thrift-store Marine jacket and sleeping on a bench in Central Park, Alison's roped into helping a majestic - and rather sarcastic - Unicorn who needs a virgin to free five baby Unicorns from an evil wizard's brownstone in Gramercy Park.  Alison's not actually a... but the Unicorn's not hearing any of it - he wants a little more competence in his heroine.  Will Alison be the one?


Bougainvillea by Carrie Ryan

On a pirate Island, they survive in a world where the dead return as fast-moving Lihemorto.  Surviving means you have to be ruthless.  Iza's father rules their island with a fist, keeping them all safe - but at such a cost.  Iza's mother is dead, and now Iza's faced with a dashing pirate, a dream of how the world was and might be again, and Zombies.


A Thousand Flowers by Margo Lanagan

A drunk man follows a Unicorn to an unconscious Princess by a forest stream.  She's exposed, and he tries to cover up her modesty.  In doing so, he's caught by the palace guards.  What will be his fate?  And what of the Princess?


The Children of the Revolution by Maureen Johnson

Sophie follows her boyfriend to work an organic farm in England for the summer.  It's hideous and more like slave labor.  After two weeks he abandons her, and she's desperate for a job to save her summer.  An American celebrity who lives nearby is desperate for some child-care help.  But there are special rules Sophie must follow...


The Care and Feeding of Your Baby Killer Unicorn by Diana Peterfreund

The Unicorn Killers tried to recruit Wen to come to Italy and learn from them after she survived a Unicorn attack that killed her cousins, but her parents won't hear of it - the magic is not Christian, and they certainly are.  But Wen has a special affinity for the killer beasts, or maybe they have for her.  And when she stumbles upon a  chained and dying unicorn at a traveling circus, somehow she ends up caring for its baby... a charming baby unicorn.  She even names it 'Flower."  But as she falls in love with it, she knows she'll have to kill it eventually.  After all, it's deadly to everyone around her.


Inoculata by Scott Westerfeld

Six billion Zombies.  And only a few small pockets of humans left.  Ally's trapped with a small group of other humans on an old pot farm, with hundreds of Zombies pushing up against the chain link fence all around them.  For the last four years.  But, what if there was a way to be innoculated against the Zombies?  To escape into the Zombie-infested world without being eaten?  To finally learn to drive, and go somewhere?  When the girl Ally's been crushing on tells her there may be a way, is it worth the risk? 


Princess Prettypants by Meg Cabot

It's Liz's 17th birthday, and it's the worst day of her life.  The day goes from creepy popular boy making fun of her breasts to her parent's 'surprise' party for her featuring High School Musical decorations.  And no one's really showed up at her party anyway, since uber-popular Kate has the same birthday and is doing a blow-out party at her nowhere-around-parents' place.  But then Liz gets a birthday present she doesn't expect: A real-live rainbow-farting lavender-eyed Unicorn.  What is she, seven?


Cold Hands by Cassandra Clare

James is Adele's boyfriend.  And he's due, when he turns 18, to become The Duke of Lychgate, or Zombietown, as their cursed town is known to the rest of the world.  Because Lychgate's dead come back and walk among them.  When James is murdered in front of her, Adele suspects his Uncle, the current man who rules as Duke until James turns 18.  Now James will never turn 18.  But Adele still loves him.  And justice must be done.


The Third Virgin by Kathleen Duey

A first person tale, told from the point of view of a Unicorn who's lived 500 years, and can't stop his hunger for healing humans... and stealing years of their lives in that moment of healing.  Only a Virgin, pure of heart and desperate of need, can hear the Unicorn's thoughts, and there's only been two in 500 years.  But now, the Unicorn is determined to find one last Virgin, to help him end his immortal life and end the terrible hunger...


Prom Night by Libba Bray

Jeff was student body Treasurer.  Tahmina was President.  Now they're the law - after all, the adults are gone, dead or undead, and their town is a fenced-off prison keeping the infection out and the surviving students in.  But it's Prom night, and much as they'd like to celebrate, they're busy.  Their shift starts out with Jeff having to kill a Zombie - a guy that he used to think was so hot.  Not so much anymore.  And Prom night just gets stranger from there.


So which is it - are you Team Zombie, or Team Unicorn?

You'll have to read them all to decide!

Namaste,
Lee

The Poison Eaters and Other Stories - A Short Story Collection with Gay Characters

By Holly Black

Published in 2010 by Big Mouth House

Suggested by one of our readers, Steph, this collection does a great job of grounding fantasy in reality. For example, it features faeries living in New York City. "The Poison Eaters" contains two well-crafted short stories with homosexual characters. Holly Black, best known for The Spiderwick Chronicles, sucks you into her world of faeries and other mythical creatures. While these two stories are the only ones with queer characters, each of the 12 short stories in "The Poison Eaters" is incredibly fun to read.

The Coat of Stars
Every night Rafael and Lyle would sneak out to a mattress in the woods and make love, despite Lyle’s grandmother’s warnings about the faeries living there. One day Lyle tells Rafael that he has actually seen the faeries, but just as the two boys are about to run off to New York, Lyle is discovered dead. Rafael moves to New York and becomes a successful tailor, but still can’t get over his loss. On one of his trips home to New Jersey, Rafael discovers that Lyle is actually with the faeries and he could bring him back with his tailoring talents.


The Land of Heart’s Desire
Roiben, a faerie king, goes to New York City to visit his girlfriend Kaye, a fellow faery, who owns the Moon in a Cup coffee shop. There, he finds out that Kaye’s best friend Corny has been marketing the café as a place where people can spot faeries. Roiben is angered until he meets someone who has a link to his past. Corny and Roiben then bond over Corny’s problems with his ambitious boyfriend Luis. This story is a great blend of reality and fantasy. (Lee's note: Yes, these are some of the same characters in the same world as in Holly Black's books Tithe, Valiant and Ironside.)


--Posted by Hannah

Valiant - A Teen Fantasy with a Lesbian as part of the Ensemble

By Holly Black

The third Modern Tale of Faerie in the series (after Tithe and Ironside), this book follows 17 year old Val (she shows up at the end of "Ironside") as she runs away to live with a bunch of squatters in the subway system under New York City.

When one of Val's companions talks her into tracking down the lair of a mysterious creature, Val finds herself torn between her newfound affection for an honorable monster and her fear of what her new friends are becoming.

Lewis from Ironside is a main character, and Val's best friend Ruth is a lesbian who plays an important role...

Be sure to check out my interview with the amazing Holly Black here. My thanks to Jon for making sure I included this book.

Add your review of "Valiant" in comments!

Holly Black: An exclusive SCBWI Team Blog Interview!

Holly Black is one of my heroes. She’s an incredibly talented writer, obsessed (in the best way) with the fantasy worlds of the faerie, and she takes us, her readers, on amazing nail-biting journeys. In “Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale,” a wonderful dark and edge-of-your-seat fantasy, while it was the story of 16 year old Kaye, it was also the story of Corny, a gay teen. For including Corny in the world of Faerie, for including gay people in her staggering flight of fantasy, I will always be one of Holly Black’s most enthusiastic fans.

I had the good fortune to land an exclusive SCBWI Team Blog interview with Holly Black as part of the countdown to SCBWI’s 38th Annual Summer Conference on Writing and Illustrating for Children, coming up August 7-10, 2009 in Los Angeles. (You can still register for it!)

Here, for your enjoyment, is our virtual conversation.

Lee: Hi, Holly. First, let me thank you for agreeing to be interviewed here. I’m really looking forward to this. Ready? Here goes. First question: What’s a perfect writing day for you?


Holly: A perfect writing day is a day where I get a ton of pages written and am able to jot down lots of notes for the book as a whole. Maybe it's the day when I figure out the important twist or something that makes a character I've been struggling with come alive. It's when the pages I produce won't have to be massively revised; instead, they're full of lines that express exactly the feeling I was hoping for.

The perfect writing day almost never happens.


Lee: That made me laugh - but it's good to know what a perfect day WOULD be. You write both Middle Grade and Young Adult novels. Can you tell us what you see as the difference in how you approach those stories?


Holly: I think that whenever I am writing a book, I try and cast myself in the characters' headspace. And when I'm writing middle grade, I try to remember what it felt like to be nine and ten and twelve. What I noticed. What I was interested in. When I'm writing teen books I try to remember what it was like to be sixteen or eighteen or twenty. What I was really doing. What's true. And from there, it's easy to differentiate the way the stories will go.


Lee: That's makes so much sense. Kind of like we writers have to have these multiple ages of arrested development, so we can remember what it was like to be our character's ages!

Here's something I've been wondering: In the world of picture books, there is very little interaction between the writer and the illustrator (unless of course, they’re the same person!) You’ve worked with Tony DiTerlizzi (a writer and illustrator) on the many amazing books in the Spiderwick Chronicles series, and with Ted Naifeh (an illustrator) on the awesome graphic novel “The Good Neighbors.” What’s your vision on the collaboration between words and pictures?


Holly: Actually, what I learned from those experiences was how different it was to work with different artists. With Tony, we'd sit down and discuss the plot together, then I'd go off and write while he drew and we'd send work back and forth with comments. With Ted, we had a much more traditional collaboration. I wrote each of the books and we did briefly discuss the plot (Ted gave me a great idea, in fact - one that changed the whole series) but mostly we each did our work in relative isolation. Right now I am working on a project with the illustrator Rebecca Guay tentatively titled Angels Fall - and that's different too. Like all relationships, each collaboration has its natural flow and finding that is the challenge and, ideally, the fun.


Lee: That makes a lot of sense - just like any two creative people would have different ways of collaborating. You know, I actually listened to the Spiderwick Chronicles as an audio book in my car before I ever saw any of the illustrations, and it completely worked for me. Then I got the books out from the library, and it was so interesting to "see" the characters from Tony's artistic vision. I imagine that if I'd read them with the illustrations first, it would also have been wonderful, but it would have been a different KIND of wonderful. You have books in print, books on audio, and even books made into movies. What do you feel is the ideal way (or order) for people to encounter your stories?


Holly: I feel like as a writer, I hope people will read my books. Listening to them (and certainly viewing them as a film) changes the experience, which is fine too. People should choose the way they like best. There's no wrong way.


Lee: I find that sometimes, there’s this sense that if the literature is going to have so few representations of a minority, there’s an effort to not show that minority character in a bad light - which sometimes leads to them lacking any flaws, and thus being boring. The flip side is that any “bad” traits of the character can seem like you’re stereotyping the entire group.

When you’re writing a character who is part of an under-represented group (like Corny, the gay teen in “Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale”), how do you deal with the pressure of “role modeling” the character?


Holly: The more a character is a complex, layered person, the less that character stands in for any one group, but it's also our job as writers to be responsible in our portrayals. Knowing stereotypes is important, not just in terms of avoiding them but also because the character would be aware of them. And I think it's important to know people in the group being represented.

With Corny, I wanted to reflect some of my gay friends who aren't great a picking out clothes, love computers and other geeky stuff, and who don't fit in easily to mainstream culture, even mainstream gay culture. But Corny's got a lot of other stuff going on with him. Although far from perfect, he's probably the person I identify the best with in all the Modern Faerie Tale books. All his mistakes are ones I think I would make if I was suddenly allowed access to Faerie. I'm glad, though, that in Ironside, he had a chance to work through some of what happened to him in Tithe and also to get a much happier (and deservedly so - he was really put through the wringer) ending.


Lee: Yeah, I loved Corny's character. And I thought you were very brave in including the implied masochistic aspects of Corny’s initial attraction to Nephamael. Can you talk about that choice?


Holly: I think in any kind of relationship where one person has all the power and can literally convince you that pain causes you pleasure, there is going to be a masochistic aspect.

Tithe, as a book, has a lot of power games going on with all the characters. Kaye has total control over Roiben who is also being controlled by Nicnevin because of a promise of servitude he gave to Silarial. Corny is controlled by Nephamael (Nephamael also has control over Roiben at a later part of the book). Faeries are capricious beings, except when bound by promises. It's the only thing rigid about their nature and I was really interested in that. I don't think that Corny is the only person in the book who comes off as a bit of a masochist.


Lee: Yes, the power games were fascinating. I love how you were brave enough to make your gay character a full player!

You had this beautiful pivot moment in “The Good Neighbors. Book One: Kin” where the teen girl character says (pg. 79, for those of you reading along), “A lot of kids have this fantasy that secretly they’re really the princess of a foreign country. Turns out that pretty much sucks.” That theme, that access to a secret world changes you and you can’t go back to your “normal” life before, is something I also see in the world of Tithe, and in the Spiderwick Chronicles. What are the through-lines YOU see in your writing?


Holly: I write a lot about going back home - both metaphorically like where the Grace kids return to a family home, but one they personally have never been in and in the sense of Kaye literally returning to the place where she grew up. I also write a lot about balancing between two worlds or two aspects of yourself. Kaye doesn't want to stay in Faerie forever, Roiben has to figure out how to balance beween the Seelie and Unseelie Courts, and in the Spiderwick books Arthur Spiderwick illustrates the perils of a life out of balance.


Lee: I love how you put that. So, with the Summer SCBWI conference quickly approaching, what single piece of advice would you offer to someone planning to attend?


Holly: It's good, I think, to have some goals going in. Maybe you want to focus on some aspect of technique that's really bothering you--like figuring out how to improve your dialogue. Maybe you want to connect with other people for a critique group. Maybe you want to hear about new and interesting agents. Having something [as] a focus helps me remember that it's not possible to do everything. Other than that, have fun and let all the rest happen spontaneously.


Lee: I agree that going into the four day "kidbookapalooza" with a specific intent - at the same time as being open to serendipity - is a great way to approach it. And, the final question of our interview... Would you let me scoop the name of your talk at the conference? (Also, if you know the day and time you'll be speaking I'll include that info for the interview readers!)


Holly: I'm going to be talking about the basics of fantasy writing on Saturday the 9th at 9:30AM. I will be guzzling a lot of coffee to be awake at that hour. Hope you'll come out so I can meet you in person, Lee.


Lee: I'll be there, even if I have to arrive astride a kelpie!

Thank you Holly, for a wonderful interview. I hope all our readers will enjoy it as much as I did!

Namaste,
Lee

Countdown to the Summer SCBWI Conference... 4 weeks to go until the 4 day "Kidbookapalooza!"

Okay, 24 days until the big 38th Annual Summer Conference on Writing and Illustrating for Children, August 7-10, 2009, in Los Angeles, CA!

The conference will be AMAZING, with opportunities to learn and schmooze and grow with writers and editors and agents and illustrators and art directors and other industry professionals!

And, to help us all get excited about the veritable candy-store of good stuff that the four day conference will present, as part of SCBWI TEAM BLOG,

I know, I know, perhaps it's a bit too much "branding,"
but I like having the logo!

I'll be sharing some exclusive interviews with some incredible people over the next 23 days...

I'd tell you who now, but then, where would the surprise be?

Here's what's NOT a surprise - this list of jaw-droppingly talented people speaking at the conference!

Can you believe we'll get to hear luminaries like these???

Holly Black (Tithe! Spiderwick Chronicles!) New York Times Bestseller and Andre Norton Award Winner!

Ellen Hopkins (Crank! Impulse!) New York Times Bestseller!

Sherman Alexie (The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian!) National Book Award Winner!

David Wiesner (Flotsam! Tuesday!) All those amazing no-word picturebooks! Multiple Caldecott Award Winner!

Kathleen Duey (Skin Hunger!) National Book Award Finalist!

And all these Golden Kite Award Winners!

Honestly, it's going to be amazing. You can still register!

And stay tuned here at "I'm Here. I'm Queer. What the Hell do I Read?" for some GREAT early Conference SCOOPS!

All right, can you tell I'm excited about this? Or have I been too subtle, having used 19 exclamation points in, um... (wait, I'm counting...) 16 sentences?

Hey, let me know in comments if you're planning to be there! (argh! 20! oh no, that makes 22, I can't control it...)

Namaste,
Lee

Ironside

By Holly Black

In the realm of faerie, Kaye declares her love - and in return is forced to go on a quest that seems impossible.

And Kaye soon discovers that she's battling Silarial, queen of the Seelie Court, for control of Roiben's throne.

Once again, Gay Teen Corny plays a major role as the faerie / human drama unfolds...


Thanks to Jacob for the recommendation. Add your review of "Ironside" in comments!

Tithe

By Holly Black

Dark.

Edgy.

Kaye is 16, and when she and her wanna-be rock star Mom go back to New Jersey, she reconnects with her childhood friend Janet, and Janet's gay brother, Corny.

Soon Kaye encounters Roiben, a mysterious black Knight, and discovers that she's in the middle of an ancient power struggle between two rival faerie kingdoms.

The teens are drawn into the war, with Kaye as the pawn - and the stakes are life and death.


Thanks to loyal reader Jacob for the recommendation! Add your review of "Tithe" in comments.