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Annette Klause: Bloody cat licked my toast while I was typing! Karen Romano Young: Is it okay if I drink beer? Cafe Host MaryP: What are you having Annette, maybe we'll join you? Jessica: I am almost out of cat food, so mine will be doing the same (licking toast) if I don't get the store ack! Annette Klause: Only if you give me one! Annette Klause: Mushroom soups. Mmmmmmmmm!!!!! Karen Romano Young: Love to... Annette Klause: I'll take a Newcastle Brown Ale Cafe Host MaryP: hmm, soup sounds good--not cat-licked toast! : ) Karen Romano Young: Sierra Nevada Ale...Alas no Newcastle Lara Z.: Did I hear soup? Annette Klause: Oh, I just didn't look at the toast while I ate it. Cafe Host MaryP: ha Cafe Host MaryP: hey Lara! Hello, knight! Annette Klause: Hi, everybody. Muerf! Slurp! Karen Romano Young: I have way too much cat food. We're so afraid of what they'll do if we run out we all overdo it. Annette Klause: Sierra Nevada is good Cafe Host MaryP: hey Kate, is that you hiding way down there? Annette Klause: Yeah, mine won't let me in the front door if I come back from the store without cat food. Karen Romano Young: Hi Annette. I've been re-reading Blood and Chocolate and howling softly to myself. Probably explains why the cats are keeping their distance. Annette Klause: LOL Cafe Host MaryP: It looks like brown is the color of choice tonight. Hi Kathleen. Kathleen: Hi. Do I just say stuff or do I have to wait for a signal? Karen Romano Young: I'm maroon. And a maroon. Kathleen: Oh. There I am. Annette Klause: Maybe they're all introverts Rollie: Hello everyone Annette Klause: Yep! There you is Cafe Host MaryP: the chat isn't starting for a few more minutes, so holler away. When it is time I'll get my whip out. Karen Romano Young: Hello everybody... kym: hi there Kathleen: Whip. Oooo. I'll be good. Karen Romano Young: Howling okay? Annette Klause: This is the time to gab away with no whipmistress. Annette Klause: Ahwoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! Cafe Host MaryP: Don't get excited now, Kathleen ; ) Annette Klause: yay! Nancy! Karen Romano Young: Yeah, Annette!! We'll have a howlelujah chorus! Rollie: <----has read Silver Kiss and planning to read Blood and Chocolate Kathleen: I was going to sign in as Tom Decatur, but chickened out. Annette Klause: Heh! Heh! Nancy Werlin: Hey, all. Lara Z.: I'm in the middle of SILVER KISS right now and I am fascinated by it. LOVED B&C. Karen Romano Young: You'll love it, Rollie. Cafe Host MaryP: WELCOME to the YA Authors Cafe! Tonight's chat will begin in a few minutes. We're waiting for a few more guests to arrive.A reminder: This is a multi-age chatroom with tender young and old ears alike. Please moderate your language accordingly. Annette Klause: Thank you Lara Tori: Kathleen, I see you did not perish in the storm last week! yayayyaa Kathleen: Will be good. Promise. Annette Klause: Murffff!! Karen Romano Young: If only spiders made cool noises like werewolves. Annette Klause: That was me stiffling it Kathleen: No, I lived to tell about it. Tori: you can't be good and you know it! Cafe Host MaryP: they make ME make noises, Karen! Annette Klause: Suer spiders do. ya just gotta get reeeeeeeal close Kathleen: People walking into spider webs make cool noises. If you can describe terror as cool. Cafe Host MaryP: My noise is very close to Annette's ahooooooooo! Karen Romano Young: You have Californian spiders... Cafe Host MaryP: BIG ones. Annette Klause: Those are the ones with shades Kathleen: I hear Florida bugs are like 6 feet long. Which I suppose include spiders Cafe Host MaryP: and surfboards Karen Romano Young: Wicked cool. Karen Romano Young: hanging eight? Kathleen: California spiders for sure are dudes Nancy Werlin: So, Karen, the "click here to find out more" about Cobwebs link on your site doesn't work! Wah! Annette Klause: With cat-lick toast Karen Romano Young: oh no! I'll check -- Annette Klause: Hmmm! That was philosophical Karen Romano Young: Thanks for telling me, Nancy. Annette Klause: Burp! Rollie: slow coming onto my screen...dang....but hello Annette Kathleen: spider and mushroom soup? Annette Klause: Hi! *waves arms* Nancy Werlin: But nevermind, the "my books" link works and that got me to the book info just fine. "Nancy," eh? I can't wait to read it. Karen Romano Young: I'm waving eight arms... Annette Klause: ROTFLMAO Karen Romano Young: You bet. A play on Anansi, and my best friend's name, too. Kathleen: Just think of all the fingers on those arms. Kathleen: Plus toes. Cafe Host MaryP: just a hint folks--sometimes the screen freezes
because lots of people are posting at once. Just give it a second.
If you stay frozen for two long, exit the cafe and Rollie: Annette...I am the YA librarian at Cleveland Public Library Annette Klause: And the arm pits Cafe Host MaryP: too long--ack! Rollie: been in contact with Random House about you!! Annette Klause: Cool, Rollie! Pleased to meet you Kathleen: Just think of the deodorant bill for spiders! Annette Klause: Oh, Oh! Forgot to answer that email Will soon sorry Cafe Host MaryP: ****ATTENTION**** The chat is now beginning. I am going to introduce our wonderful guests, ask a few questions, THEN I will open it up for audience participation. Rollie: crossing fingers...hoping you can visit us....but more about that later Cafe Host MaryP: Welcome to the YA Author's Cafe! Thanks for coming! I'm Mary Pearson, the guest host for tonight's chat. Our guests tonight are two YA authors who are not only extremely talented, they are just plain nice--Annette Curtis Klause, and Karen Romano Young! Annette Klause: Hoping, too. haven't checked calendar. Annette Klause: And I thought I was fancy nice. Cafe Host MaryP: Let me tell you a little about each of them . . . Cafe Host MaryP: Annette Curtis Klause writes about vampires,
werewolves, and human oddities with sex lives. She swears they
are autobiographical-kind of. Her books include Annette Klause: *takes bow* Cafe Host MaryP: The projected publication date is Fall 2005. Annette grew up in England and came to the U.S. as a teenager. She survived a tumultuous youth to shock everyone by becoming a children's librarian. You can learn more about Annette and her books at www.childrensbookguild.org/klause.htm Karen Romano Young: Oh, man! Sounds so good! Cafe Host MaryP: Welcome, Annette!! Annette Klause: Yoohoo! Annette Klause: Thanks! Karen Romano Young: (wild applause) Cafe Host MaryP: and now a little about Karen . . . Cafe Host MaryP: Karen Romano Young's first YA novel, The Beetle and Me: A Love Story came out in spring 1999 and earned her a spot in PW's Flying Starts. Her second YA novel, Video, came out in fall 1999, and her only MG novel, Outside In, was published in 2002. COBWEBS, her latest book, comes out in September. It is about a girl with some unexpected and UNUSUAL talents! It is quite different from her other books, but I will let her tell you about that shortly! You can learn more about her and her books at www.wrenyoung.com Karen Romano Young: Thanks, Mary. Cafe Host MaryP: Welcome, Karen!! Nancy Werlin: ((Audience cheers wildly for Karen and Annette!)) Annette Klause: Yay!!!!! TRINITY: MG?? Karen Romano Young: Just one MG... Cafe Host MaryP: Many thanks to both of you for coming tonight! Ready for some questions? Annette Klause: middle grade Kathleen: when do we start butting in? Cafe Host MaryP: Our topic tonight is Human or Not--Exploring Outrageous Characters! So to get our discussion going, could you each tell us what your latest book is about? Karen, do you want to go first? Cafe Host MaryP: (not yet Kathleen : ) Karen Romano Young: Cobwebs is a mystery, a romance, a coming of age story...that's the catalog copy. It's about Nancy, who's trying to figure out what kind of spider she is -- a weaver like her mother? A roof dweller like her father? Or something else entirely, like that weird boy she saw on the Brooklyn Promenade... Cafe Host MaryP: It is a WONDERFUL story, Karen! When will it be out?? Karen Romano Young: Unlike Vivian in Blood and Chocolate, Nancy won't begin to change until she's of a certain age. Karen Romano Young: September. Karen Romano Young: Change to a spider, I mean. Karen Romano Young: And thanks, Mary! Cafe Host MaryP: Annette, can you tell us about your latest book, Blood and Chocolate? (or your one that is due this month?) Annette Klause: Not in print this month, I'm afraid, just die to the editor..Gasp! Karen Romano Young: Excellent. Something we can all identify with! Annette Klause: It's set over a hundred years ago in the world of the traveling shows. It's about a boy born to circus freaks who leaves the familiar world to set out to find his fortune, but keeps on landing back with the human oddities... Annette Klause: Then there's the ring a Siamese twin gave him... Annette Klause: Ever since then he's had these dreams... Annette Klause: An exotic dancing woman beckoning him on? Annette Klause: Who is she? Is she a real woman, or just a symbol for the adventure he craves? GA Cafe Host MaryP: yikes--sounds steamy!--when can we read this one? knight_thyme: cool Karen Romano Young: So he runs away to unjoin the circus? Annette Klause: Hopefully Fall 2005 (be still my heart) Annette Klause: Yeah! LOL Sort of, Karen Cafe Host MaryP: What made you choose to write about such unusual characters? And how did your protagonist's particular unusual trait, mesh in with their human side and help to develop who they were? Karen Romano Young: woohoo! Cafe Host MaryP: This question is for both of you. Annette Klause: Glad you clarified! B&C Vivian is very close to me.. Annette Klause: Well, the emotional state, anyway. I'm not gorgeous like her or as hairy... Annette Klause: I wanted to personify the turbulence of adolescence. For me, being a teenager with all those roiling emotions and changeable moods was kinda like being a werewolf... Cafe Host MaryP: and hormones? Annette Klause: Actually I wanted to write about werewolves and the adolescent thing came second, the more i thought about the inner working of my character... Annette Klause: Yeah, and hormones amuck! Karen Romano Young: Um, I started my story outside a house in the dark. Nancy and her grandmother are sitting in a car waiting for her grandfather to come out. He's a doctor and he's in there doing a house visit. Kind of old school, so why's he doing that? And why doesn't he come out? Karen Romano Young: Then I recalled how spiderwebs are said to have healing properties. Karen Romano Young: So what if the grandparents were spiders? Karen Romano Young: And what if Nancy wondered whether she was like that, too -- with a mixture of revulsion and excitement -- again, it's all about sex and maturing, right? Cafe Host MaryP: yes! Karen Romano Young: Of course it all begins with her when she meets the strange and gifted Dion. Cafe Host MaryP: Nancy is timid too--like some spiders? Karen Romano Young: Yes, he is. He has left home and is living on the rooftops in Brooklyn. Karen Romano Young: She's afraid of heights, actually. But I don't think she's timid, really -- she's going to have to face herself eventually. More maturing... Cafe Host MaryP: Annette and Karen, do you think that, because your characters have this unusual side that they are trying to understand themselves, it creates a universal connection with readers? Karen Romano Young: Most def. Don't we all yearn to NOT be ordinary? Annette Klause: I think so--teen readers, anyway. It's time when we are all trying to understand who we are. It's kind of comforting that someone else is having a harder time than you, and encouraging when that person manages it despite everything. Cafe Host MaryP: I think this applies to adults as well! Annette Klause: Well, actually some people yearn to be thought ordinary. Karen Romano Young: Me, too, Mary. Thanks. Karen Romano Young: Kiss of death for me. Cafe Host MaryP: How do you get inside the head of your characters? Are there parts of "you" in them? (I'm almost afraid to ask this! ; ) GA Cafe Host MaryP: (behave yourself now, Annette ; ) Annette Klause: It wiggle and jiggled and tickled inside her Nancy Werlin: (hahaHA!) Karen Romano Young: Wait, who's talking about spiders now? Annette Klause: I used to howl to get into Vivian's persona. The neighbors were glad when i finished that book. Karen Romano Young: You know, I have these little baby spiderlings all over my desk from time to time. They just know they're safe, somehow. Karen Romano Young: I went to Brooklyn and walked around and took pictures of everything I'd been writing about and remembered it all over again from when I was a teen. Karen Romano Young: Nancy just comes from some gnarly little waiting spot inside me. It's not hard to get there from here. Annette Klause: Vivian expresses some of the anger I felt as a teen. Cafe Host MaryP: Was that because you were a transplanted teen from England? Annette Klause: Frustration anger Karen Romano Young: Sexual frustration? Frustration with other females? With feeling other? Annette Klause: I would have been more angry there. At least here I had some outlet for my weirdness by hanging out with the "hippie" element. We called ourselves Freaks, didn't we? How prophetic. thingschange: (the real Siamese twins of teenhood!) Annette Klause: Frustration with powerlessness Cafe Host MaryP: thanks--great responses! Karen Romano Young: If you name your club, then others can't name it for you. Annette Klause: I want I want I want I can't have Cafe Host MaryP: (All right gang, I am going to ask our guest one more question and then it will be time for you to ask your questions. Type your "?" at any time, and then get your questions ready to send and for me to call on you.) Cafe Host MaryP: There is sexual tension in both of your stories. Karen, Dion, is certainly dark and sexy and gets Nancy's attention fast enough--and readers too! And Annette, the very sexy Vivian is legendary. What kind of responses have you gotten from readers about this? Annette Klause: Well, Ive been banned. *grin* Karen Romano Young: Yay for being banned! Cafe Host MaryP: banned! Every writer's dream! Annette Klause: Yanked from the shelves of high school libraries--well not personally Karen Romano Young: My book isn't out quite yet. Annette Klause: not yet Cafe Host MaryP: Readers will love the sexy Dion, Karen! Annette Klause: next time I climb some though Annette Klause: I want to read about him. YUM! Karen Romano Young: Thanks, Mary -- I know I do. All kinds of rooftop fantasies. Annette Klause: Up on the roooooooooooooof! Cafe Host MaryP: Well, were eager to read about this upcoming exotic dancer too, Annette. Karen Romano Young: YoWWWWWWW Annette Klause: She's a saucy baggage, but a little old for
him.. Snerk! Annette Klause: Don't know if it will, it' s not optioned currently, but MGM is still working on B&C Cafe Host MaryP: We can hope, right Knight? Lara GA Annette Klause: There's news this month in fact Lara Z.: Annette, I have to ask: how do you feel about female sexuality in YA lit? This is a subject I'm fascinated with. GA Annette Klause: They've hired a new director--the fourth Annette Klause: Rupert Wainwright who directed --yikes I've forgotten. Female sexuality--more please--honest and not cursed with retribution. Annette Klause: Stigmata that was the movie and the TV show Wolf lake Cafe Host MaryP: Do you want to elaborate on "retribution?" Karen Romano Young: RW the singer? Lara Z.: Why do you think there's such a stigma against female sexuality? It seems to me unless the female is in a relationship with another female, they are not "supposed to" enjoy sex. Not in YA lit. Annette Klause: Sorry, my browser slowed down--that was Lauden Wainwright (or some such spelling) Annette Klause: Another female? I'd better start reading more. But, yes, it still seems there's a puritan ban on girls enjoying sex. Rollie: Annette...I felt there was lots of suspense in Silver Kiss....intentional? Difficult to write? Karen Romano Young: Ahem, there's also a puritan ban on YA authors writing about sex, I think. Annette Klause: Yes the suspense was intentional--but the book poured out. The revisions were harder. Rollie: Loved when she invited the vampire in but we knew who he was but she didn't ...great booktalk scene Annette Klause: Well, I suppose--but I point out to people my characters just feel sexy, they often don't get to the actual sex. People just think they did. TRINITY: to Karen, how do you write about so much different stuff. TRINITY: the beatle book was a romance but this new one sounds like horror (sorry didn't read video) Annette Klause: Being a librarian, I think about good booktalk
scenes and cliff hanger Cafe Host MaryP: Yes, Karen, your books are all quite different!
Especially this one! Karen Romano Young: Trinity, it's not horror -- sorry if the spiders worry you! It's a romance, too. I'm not sure why I'm so all over the place with topics. Kathleen: Karen, I can picture a human bean turning into a werewolf--same number of appendages, long spine, bit of a tail bone--but how do you indicate/show the transformation of a human bean into a spider? All those armpits (as previously mentioned by someone on the werewolf side of the family.) Anne: Annette, are you still working as a librarian? When are you writing another book? Cafe Host MaryP: (LOL, Kathleen) Karen Romano Young: Hmmm, in just a line. They collapse inward on themselves like Hoberman spheres (those balls in the Discover store) Kathleen: I feel on the verge of collapse all the time. Maybe I'm a spider! Cafe Host MaryP: Last question from me:Both of your books tie in nicely with Halloween season. Since both of you work in libraries, do you plan to do any special readings there to celebrate the season and your characters? With your busy schedules are you able to squeeze in any other appearances? Karen Romano Young: Also the two that transform have really big hair, as I do. I always suspected it had hidden abilities. Annette Klause: Well. I lie to do a Halloween storytime that curdles the blood of the little buggers and makes them pay mind to me the rest of the year. Cafe Host MaryP: LOL! Why does that not surprise me? Karen Romano Young: Oh, yes. I'll be at Washington Irving's house in New York State, looking for Ichabod Crane and signing...some writing workshops also, and a bookstore or two. Annette Klause: I always get invited places to speak in October. Wonder why? LOL Cafe Host MaryP: Wonderful for those who live near there! Cafe Host MaryP: Our "official" time for tonight is up--some of us need to go--but the rest of you are welcome to stay and chat as long as you like. A big thank and round of applause for our fantastic guests--and their outrageous characters! Kathleen: Yay!!!!Clapclapclap!!!!! Cafe Host MaryP: Thank you Karen! Thank you, Annette! clap, clap!!! MarPerez: Thanks Annette, Thanks Karen! Lara Z.: Thanks for a great chat! Kathleen: Gonna go have me a big bowl of mushroom spider soup Annette Klause: Thank you thank you Cafe Host MaryP: Don't forget our next chat September 7! It's a publication party for debut novelist, Marlene Perez and her sure to-be-noticed book--UNEXPECTED DEVELOPMENT! See you then! Cafe Host MaryP: Like I said, you can stay longer! Our guests may hang for a bit for some more questions--Anne, are you there? Annette Klause: My browser is really sucko slow. I keep on thinking I've been booted out. Cafe Host MaryP: Good night for those who must leave! MarPerez: Karen & Annette, I can't wait to read both books! Cafe Host MaryP: Annette, Karen, you were both wonderful. It can get a little confusing and hectic but you weathered it well--must be all those spider and wolf genes, eh? Kathleen: Annette actually is quite hairy, by the way Annette Klause: Note to self--must get that spider book. Annette Klause: Hey! I heard that Kathleen. It's menopause, I tell you! Annette Klause: Alien Secrets and B&C are on tape but I didn't get to pick who reads them. Rollie Welch: Annette....let's see if we can entice you to CPL? Annette Klause: Authors don't get to pick much actually--no
nose jokes, Kathleen. Annette Klause: I'll check my calendar and get back to the RH publicity person. Cafe Host MaryP: (I have to shove off folks-my son-in-laws birthday--last one out, turn out the lights! night) Annette Klause: Is that a thinly disguised Patrick Jones? thingschange: I wish THIN Cafe Host MaryP: oh thanks, Patrick, get a juicy conversation going just when I have to leave! night MarPerez: Night, Mary. I'll turn the lights Annette Klause: Yeah! Yeah! You are so. Annette Klause: The editors run interference a little, I think because they know they have to get past the librarians. thingschange: and then is it the librarians themselves who object, or are they scared of parents objecting? MarPerez: Annette, what do you think is at the root of librarians hesitating about sex in teen fiction? Fear of challenges, personal beliefs, their bosses? Annette Klause: There are plenty of adults out there still in denial about teen sexual feelings tabby: I hope it's not the librarians! As a brand new teen librarian, I have already had to face negative reactions to teen sexuality/sensuality from parents and teens themselves, but trust me, as a librarian, I say: bring it on! Kathleen: Also they don't want the parents jumping down their backs. spider-like :-) Rollie Welch: Many well written books that deal with teen sexuality are refused to be purchased by many librarians MarPerez: you know what I find odd is that some people have no problem with their teens reading adult novels with the same sexuality/sensuality, but when a book is labeled teen, it's suddenly forbidden Annette Klause: All of those--some worry about getting trouble
with the parents, some feel their bosses won't back them up,
some don't approve themselves. I've spoken to them. Susan: I am preparing to fight to keep Doing It in the teen area Kathleen: Interesting point, Marlene. Hadn't thought of it. Annette Klause: I wonder if some feel there's so much sex in other media that there should still be a "safe place" Susan: no such thing as a safe place Kathleen: especially from spiders. Rollie Welch: many school librarians I know are worried about parent backlash if they have YA books with homosexual relationships on their shelves Susan: about spiders I mean Annette Klause: Worse if they have homosexual relationships on the shelves with books. Kathleen: Yes. The books get in the way. MarPerez: See, I think there should be a backlash if books AREN'T on the shelves. Rollie Welch: hee hee...but it is a shame that great writing is pseudo-censored by simply not purchasing Annette Klause: Well, my browser has slid to a halt again. I must bid you farewell. Getting late. Work tomorrow. Time to veg. Susan: a professor in library school told us that we are not doing a good job selecting books if there isn't at least 25% of our collection that we disagree with or wouldn't personally buy Kathleen: Have to go. Night! (Now watch some friggin' spider bite me on the rear end while i'm in bed.) MarPerez: Night, Annette. Susan, that's great. I try to read
books that aren't really my cup of tea for that same reason.
Gotta go, too. Night all. |