the strange maid blog tour - tessa gratton author guest post (+ giveaway!)

Author Tessa Gratton is here today at Adventures of Cecelia Bedelia with a guest post.  Her new YA fantasy The Strange Maid features a girl who would sacrifice all to be a Valkyrie, and is set in The United States of Asgard, an alternate version of North America. The Strange Maid was released by Random House Books for Young Readers on June 10, 2014.  Check out the end of the post for a giveaway!

When Tessa was a kid, she wanted to be a wizard. Or a paleontologist. Maybe both.She’s neither now, but magic and monsters are still her favorite things.

Born in Okinawa, Japan, while her Dad was on duty with the US Navy, Tessa moved around throughout her childhood and traveled even more. She’s lived in Japan, California, Kansas, and England, and visited 4 continents.

After graduating from the University of Kansas in 2003 with a degree in Gender Studies, she went on to graduate school for a Master’s in the same. Halfway through, she ditched the program in favor of the blood, violence, and drama of  Anglo-Saxon and Germanic epic poetry and to focus on her writing. Tessa doesn’t have a graduate degree, but she did translate her own version of Beowulf!

Despite having traveled all over the world, she settled in Kansas where the sunsets are all in Technicolor, with her partner, two cats, and a mutant mutt named Grendel.  You can learn more about Tessa and her books at TessaGratton.com and on Twitter.

Welcome Tessa!  When we were talking about possible guest post ideas, I mentioned The Avengers… and you came through with a US of Asgard version of Captain America.  YUM.  I mean… yay!  *grin*

A brief history and analysis of Steve Josephson, aka Captain Asgardia, the First Avenger

  

Born to immigrants from Eireland nearly one hundred years ago in New Amsterdam City, with a frail constitution and parents dedicated to Tyr the Just, Steve Josephson seemed an unlikely candidate for such a shining and long-reaching destiny as the one woven for him. Perhaps Freya the Witch herself might have seen the knot, and preserved him through childhood illness and the deaths of both his parents, but she’ll never admit it.

When the misguided cult of Odin stirred across the ocean and began the Second Eurland War, the United States of Asgard tried to stay out of it, reverting to isolationist policies the government adopted in the wake of the Thrall’s War which had divided the country – and the gods – eighty years beforehand. But when news reached the Alfather and his administration that the cult in Deutschland had begun experimenting with super-solider serums in order to create their own cast of warriors to match the magically-born berserkers of the Alfather’s own line, the USA entered the war.

Though the Alfather’s priority was ending the offensive project, Thor Thunderer had always been a champion of humanity and equality and wanted to fight for the sake of the people of Eurland. He agreed with his generals who suggested soldiers as strong as berserkers but without their inherent weaknesses of madness and lack of control could turn the tide of conflicts for the rest of time. The Thunderer disliked secret projects, but reluctantly agreed to shelter a group of his military scientists who began looking into the super-serum. Though there was much trial and error, eventually Steve Josephson was chosen to receive the experimental dose.

He took to it mightily. Having already gone against his family’s dedication Tyr the Just in favor of the Thunderer, Steve had spend his life standing up to bullies and defending the weak – despite being weak himself. He proved to have the strength of heart and courage necessary to survive the serum, waking with super strength and a vastly improve war-machine of a body.

The Alfather was predictably furious, and refused to allow the newly dubbed Captain Asgardia to fight. Steve was relegated to raising money for the real soldiers, until he took matters into his own, super-strong hands and bucked the Alfather’s authority to follow his heart and favored god into battle. History shows us how he used his power to help turn the tide of the war, and though he did not survive the war, his ultimate sacrifice appeased the Alfather – the god of sacrifice – and Odin helped the Thunderer in later years to enshrine the name of Captain Asgardia as the ultimate hero of New Asgard.

Both while he was performing to raise funds and while he fought bravely as a symbol of Asgardian values, Captain Asgardia wore a uniform based upon the US flag: red, green, and blue for the highest gods, with wing-symbols for the Alfather’s bloodthirsty Valkyrie, lightning bolts for the Thunderer’s bravery, and red stripes for Freyr the Satisfied’s drive and passion. His shield was shaped by the last of the elves-under-the-mountain from their horded extra-terrestrial steel. Onto it was imprinted the Seal of New Asgard: blue and silver with a silver apple of immortality and nine stars for the nine supreme gods and nine Valkyrie and nine years of presidential service.

Though some have speculated after his death he was raised to the Valhol to become one of Odin’s immortal warriors, most agree his bones wait somewhere at the cold bottom of the ocean for the day when Thor Thunderer calls all his faithful servants up from death to join him in the final battle. 

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Thank you for sharing that, Tessa!  I imagine I’ll be daydreaming about Chris Evans all day now (that’s what you meant to happen, right?!).

If this post has sparked your interest in The Strange Maid (or The Lost Sun, United States of Asgard Book #1), please enter the giveaway! Tessa will send a signed copy of The Strange Maid to one lucky winner, and a signed copy of The Lost Sun to another. TWO SIGNED BOOKS!  *happy dance*  To enter, simply fill out the FORM. Giveaway open to US addresses only, will end on Wednesday, June 18th at 11:59pm EST.  Winner will be notified via email.  Good luck!

Fans of Neil Gaiman, Holly Black, and Maggie Stiefvater will embrace the richly drawn, Norse-influenced alternate world of the United States of Asgard, where cell phones, rock bands, and evangelical preachers coexist with dragon slaying, rune casting, and sword training in schools. Where the president runs the country alongside a council of Valkyries, gods walk the red carpet with Hollywood starlets, and the U.S. military has a special battalion dedicated to eradicating Rocky Mountain trolls. 

Signy Valborn was seven years old when she climbed the New World Tree and met Odin Alfather, who declared that if she could solve a single riddle, he would make her one of his Valkyrie. For ten years Signy has trained in the arts of war, politics, and leadership, never dreaming that a Greater Mountain Troll might hold the answer to the riddle, but that’s exactly what Ned the Spiritless promises her. A mysterious troll hunter who talks in riddles and ancient poetry, Ned is a hard man to trust. Unfortunately, Signy is running out of time. Accompanied by an outcast berserker named Soren Bearstar, she and Ned take off across the ice sheets of Canadia to hunt the mother of trolls and claim Signy’s destiny.

Fine print: Giveaway books provided and shipped by the author.  I received no compensation for this post.

ask me blog tour - kimberly pauley guest post

Author Kimberly Pauley is here today at Adventures of Cecelia Bedelia with a guest post.  Her new YA fantasy Ask Me stars Aria Morse, a girl who must answer every question truthfully.  Ask Me was released by Soho Teen on April 8, 2014.  

Kimberly Pauley wanted to grow up to be Douglas Adams, Robert Heinlein, or Edgar Allen Poe, but has since settled for being herself and writing her own brand of quirky. Born in California, she has lived everywhere from Florida to Chicago and has now gone international to live in London with her husband (a numbers man) and the cutest little boy in the world (The Max).

Her first book was Sucks to Be Me and it made her very happy that it made the YALSA Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers list as she firmly believes reluctant readers are just people who haven’t found the right book yet. Her second book, Still Sucks to Be Me, was a VOYA best sci-fi/fantasy pick. She wrote Cat Girl’s Day Off because she wanted to share what cats really think with the world and also because she likes to read about kick-butt half-Asian girls with funky hair. In Ask Me, she goes to the dark side and questions the nature of truth.  You can learn more about Kimberly at her website, on Twitter, or at her Facebook page.

Welcome Kimberly! 

I have (of course) been reading the early reviews of ASK ME with interest (heh, show me an author who says they don’t read any reviews and I’ll show you someone in denial – though, that said, I do tend to stay away from Goodreads for mental health purposes). I’ve seen more than one person mention a love triangle in ASK ME. Some hate that. Some love that. Some demean it as a standard YA trope. Some are all, like, yay, hot guys!

And it’s okay that people are seeing a love triangle in the book.

But I didn’t actually write one.

Wait, you say, there’s these two guys in the book! And they both talk to Aria and stuff!

Yes, that’s totally true. And Aria is definitely interested in one of the boys in a romantic sort of way (I’m trying not to name names too much here or things like that because I’m trying very hard not to be spoil-ery). And one of the boys is definitely interested in her in a much more than friends type of way. But Aria never indicates any romantic interest in the one guy and he never indicates any romantic interest in her either.

I can see some of you who have read it going Waitasecondhere and reaching for the book to thumb through the pages. Go on, go ahead and take a look. I think you’ll see what I mean.

I can completely and totally see why some readers read it as a love triangle because it is a rather common thing in YA books (and yes, I’ve written one before…) and because, perhaps, it’s a human tendency to read between the lines and see things that may or may not be there. There’re these two hot dudes and a girl main character, yadda yadda, badda-boom, etc. but, when I wrote the book I wasn’t writing it as a love triangle. A triangle, sure (or a square, really), but definitely not a love triangle.

That said, once you’ve written something and released it into the world, people are going to read it through the filter of their own experiences and colored by all the other things they’ve read and watched. So it really is okay if you read the book and you see a love triangle. Even though I wrote it and know what I intended, that doesn’t make it necessarily the way the book has to be read.

And once you have read it, I’d love to hear what you think. Seriously.

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Thank you for sharing, Kimberly!  I look forward to diving into Aria's world, and discovering this not-a-love-triangle business for myself. *grin*

Ask Aria Morse anything, and she must answer with the truth. Yet she rarely understands the cryptic words she‘s compelled to utter. Blessed—or cursed—with the power of an Oracle who cannot decipher her own predictions, she does her best to avoid anyone and everyone.

But Aria can no longer hide when Jade, one of the few girls at school who ever showed her any kindness, disappears. Any time Aria overhears a question about Jade, she inadvertently reveals something new, a clue or hint as to why Jade vanished. But like stray pieces from different puzzles, her words never present a clear picture.

Then there’s Alex, damaged and dangerous, but the first person other than Jade to stand up for her. And Will, who offers a bond that seems impossible for a girl who’s always been alone. Both were involved with Jade. Aria may be the only one who can find out what happened, but the closer she gets to solving the crime, the more she becomes a target. Not everyone wants the truth to come out.

Fine print: I received no compensation for this post.

into the dark: the shadow prince blog tour - bree despain guest post (+ giveaway!)

Author Bree Despain is here today at Adventures of Cecelia Bedelia with a guest post.  Her new YA fantasy Into the Dark: The Shadow Prince combines mythology, destined love and music.  Into the Dark: The Shadow Prince was released by Egmont on March 11, 2014.  Stay tuned until the end of the post for a giveaway!

Bree Despain is the author of the Dark Divine trilogy and the Into The Dark trilogy. Bree rediscovered her childhood love for creating stories when she took a semester off college to write and direct plays for at-risk, inner-city teens from Philadelphia and New York. She currently lives in Salt Lake City, Utah with her husband, two young sons, and her beloved TiVo.  You can learn more about Bree at her website www.breedespain.com or follow her on Twitter.

Welcome Bree!

Greek mythology is woven into the storyline in Into the Dark: The Shadow Prince.  How do you take stories that have been told so many times and make them new?  Is there a particular retelling (or even deviation from the traditional story) that is one of your favorites?

Every story is inspired by stories that have come before it. If a writer tells you that their story is completely 100% original, they’re either delusional or a liar.  There’s nothing wrong with this—in fact it’s a writing technique called resonance. (The act of drawing out power by repeating that which has come before.) Some stories aren’t as overt with their inspiration (like did you know that The Hunger Games was inspired by the story of Spartacus?) but others are more deliberate retellings or reimaginings of older stories, myths and fairytales. Books like The Goose Girl, Ella Enchanted, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, and even my new book The Shadow Prince create resonance in their readers’ minds by drawing upon the tales that many of us have heard since we were very young. As readers, we connect with the familiar.

Except we don’t want something that’s too familiar.

No one wants a carbon copy of something they’ve read before. Even if an author could write a fairytale exactly the way the Brothers Grimm would, or create and epic Greek odyssey that sounds exactly like it was written by Homer, I don’t think many people would want to read it—because it would feel like it was something that had been done before. The trick to creating a good reimagining of a classic story is to find a way to make it feel new: give it a twist, find a way to turn it on its head, or maybe combine aspects of more than one story.

In The Shadow Prince, I combined elements from many of the Greek myths, but most notably combined aspects from the stories of Hades and Persephone and Orpheus and Eurydice. Both stories center around characters who venture into the unknown and attempt to rewrite their own destinies. Playing on those themes, I chose to create new characters and place them in a present day setting, giving my version of their stories a modern twist. For example: instead of a great musician who is the son of the god of music, there is a musically talented girl (who wants to be the next Taylor Swift) who is the daughter of a rock star, or, instead of god-like characters who live on Mount Olympus, my characters are the children of the rich and famous who go to an elite private school called Olympus Hills.

I also tried to do things to turn the stories on their heads, so to speak. In the most common version of the Persephone and Hades myth, Hades merely steals Persephone into the Underworld and makes her his bride. But at looking at this myth (and studying earlier interpretations) I wondered about how much more intriguing it would be to make it so my character Haden couldn’t just take Daphne into the underworld, but had to convince her to come of her own free will—and what if she was the kind of person who wouldn’t want anything to do with his plan? This change in the story opened up a wealth of conflict and tension between my characters. Another change I went for is that in many ancient Greek stories, the hero is greatly revered by his fellow men, he is courageous, beloved, and a hero in every sense of the word. In The Shadow Prince, I decided to go for the opposite of this expectation. Haden is hated by his peers, has been disowned by his father (the king of the Underworld) and he is desperate to win back his honor and status as the prince—giving his character a new depth that isn’t present in the original story.

A series that I think does a fantastic job of incorporating and combining old, familiar stories into something new and exciting is The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer. Cinder, a futuristic, sci-fi take on Cinderella—in which the main character is cyborg mechanic—is one of my favorite books, and one of the stories I studied as an example of how to pull of a fantastic reimagining. There are just enough touches of the familiar mixed in with new twists to make resonate fabulously with readers.

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Thanks so much for sharing, Bree!  I loved Cinder as well - it was one of my favorite books of 2011.

If this post has sparked your interest in Into the Dark: The Shadow Prince, please enter the giveaway! The kind folks at Egmont will send one lucky winner a copy of the book. To enter, simply fill out the FORM.  Giveaway open to US and Canadian addresses only, will end on Tuesday, April 22nd at 11:59pm EST.  Winner will be notified via email.  Good luck!

Haden Lord, the disgraced prince of the Underrealm, has been sent to the mortal world to entice a girl into returning with him to the land of the dead. Posing as a student at Olympus Hills High—a haven for children of the rich and famous—Haden must single out the one girl rumored to be able to restore immortality to his race.

Daphne Raines has dreams much bigger than her tiny southern Utah town, so when her rock star dad suddenly reappears, offering her full tuition to Olympus Hills High’s prestigious music program, she sees an opportunity to catch the break she needs to make it as a singer. But upon moving into her estranged father’s mansion in California, and attending her glamorous new school, Daphne soon realizes she isn’t the only student in Olympus who doesn’t quite belong.

Haden and Daphne—destined for each other—know nothing of the true stakes their fated courtship entails. As war between the gods brews, the teenagers’ lives collide. But Daphne won’t be wooed easily and when it seems their prophesied link could happen, Haden realizes something he never intended—he’s fallen in love. Now to save themselves, Haden and Daphne must rewrite their destinies. But as their destinies change, so do the fates of both their worlds.

Interested in learning more about Into the Dark: The Shadow Prince?  Bree will be over at Miss Page-Turner's City of Books tomorrow with a Q&A and giveaway, and Jump Into Books will have a review and another giveaway opportunity as well!

Fine print: The publisher (Egmont) is supplying the giveaway books. This post is not sponsored in any way.

when audrey met alice blog tour - author guest post

Author Rebecca Behrens is here today at Adventures of Cecelia Bedelia with a guest post about famous women in history for Women's History Month.  First Daughter Alice Roosevelt is a character in her debut middle grade novel When Audrey Met Alice.  When Audrey Met Alice was released on February 4, 2014 by Sourcebooks Jabberwocky.  Check out the end of the post for the chance to win a copy!

Welcome Rebecca!

Rebecca Behrens grew up in Wisconsin, studied in Chicago, and now lives with her husband in New York City, where she works as a production editor for children’s books. Rebecca loves writing and reading about girls full of moxie and places full of history. When she’s not writing, you can find her running in the park, reading on a beach, or eating a doughnut. Visit her online at www.rebeccabehrens.com.

In writing When Audrey Met Alice, I loved getting to explore the eventful life of the real Alice Roosevelt. My favorite thing about writing historical fiction is delving into the lives of real, and sometimes famous, women like Alice. Here are a few more historical women whom I find particularly fascinating:

• Sacagawea: We know a lot about Lewis's and Clark's lives, but frustratingly little about the teenager who helped make it possible for them to reach the Pacific Ocean. Sacagawea was the daughter of a Shoshone chief, but she was kidnapped at age ten and later married to a French trader, Charbonneau. She was pregnant with their child during the Lewis and Clark expedition, giving birth at the winter camp with a rattlesnake-tail concoction to ease the pain. An interpreter and the only woman in the permanent party, Sacagawea helped negotiate peacefully with the tribes they met on their journey—including one led by her long-lost brother.

• Nellie Bly: Nellie was the 19^th-century journalist who famously traveled around the entire world in 72 days—at a time when most women wouldn’t do solo travel anywhere. She’s less famous for some of her investigative journalism, but it’s just as impressive. In 1887 she took on an undercover assignment for Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World, in which she faked a mental breakdown to get admitted to the Women’s Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell’s Island in New York. She spent ten days in the hospital, successfully convincing all the clinicians that she was mad—and once she got out, she wrote a scathing expose of the abusive and negligent care women were receiving there. Her reporting was turned into the sensational book Ten Days in a Mad-House.

• Jackie Mitchell: Do you know who struck out both Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig during one exhibition game in 1931? A seventeen-year-old girl named Jackie Mitchell. She was playing for the Chattanooga Lookouts, a minor-league team that offered her a contract after seeing her pitch for a local women’s team. There is plenty of controversy about her striking out two of the greatest players in history—some think it may have been a publicity stunt. Regardless, it’s amazing to think of a teen girl pitcher leading to Babe Ruth being pulled off the field in a hissy fit. The baseball commissioner canceled her contract shortly after, saying that the sport was “too strenuous” for women, but Jackie continued playing ball until 1937. Women were officially banned from signing baseball contracts in 1952.

• Julia Child: Julia brought the art of French cooking into countless American homes. But before she made her career in a (custom-designed, thanks to her height) kitchen, she was a spy! Too tall to enlist in the army, she joined the OSS (an intelligence agency that preceded the CIA). While later in her life she’d downplay her role as being that of a administrative clerk, her husband and others have confirmed that she oversaw information, much of it classified—and that her work was sometimes risky.

• Jane Goodall: As a child, Jane’s father gave her a toy chimpanzee, Jubilee. It sparked her interest in and love of animals. Jane went on to become an expert primatologist, and now knows more than probably anyone on earth about chimpanzees. She completed a famous 45-year study on chimpanzee social and family life at Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania, sharing with the world that other primates can show the personality, emotions, and rational thought that humans do. Today she advocates for animal rights and the environment through the Jane Gooddall Institute. And she still keeps her toy chimpanzee, Jubilee, on her dresser.

Thanks so much for sharing the stories of those women (and girls!) with us, Rebecca!  I'll look forward to seeing if any of them make an appearance in your next book.  And now... a giveaway!

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Would you like to win a copy of When Audrey Met Alice?  I'm offering one finished copy to a lucky winner.   To enter, simply fill out the FORM. Giveaway open internationally, will close on Monday, March 31st at 11:59pm EST.  Winner will be notified via email.  Good luck!

First daughter Audrey Rhodes can't wait for the party she has planned for Friday night. The decorations are all set and the pizza is on its way. But the Secret Service must be out to ruin her life, because they cancel at the last minute-citing security breach and squashing Audrey's chances for making any new friends. What good is being "safe and secure" if you can't have any fun?

Audrey is ready to give up and become a White House hermit, until she discovers Alice Roosevelt's hidden diary. The former first daughter gives Audrey a ton of ideas for having fun...and more problems than she can handle.

top ten lamest superpowers - guest post by john david anderson, author of sidekicked

Author John David Anderson is here today at Adventures of Cecelia Bedelia with a guest post on the top ten lamest superpowers.  His middle grade superhero book Sidekicked was released in hardcover by Walden Pond Press on June 25, 2013.  Check out the end of the post to win a *signed* copy!

Ten Lame Superpowers and Why You May Just Be Better Off with a Good Utility Belt

Drew Bean, the earnest and often out-of-his-league protagonist of Sidekicked is both burdened and blessed by his extraordinary senses. While an excellent supplementary power, this is pretty much Drew's only power, and he spends no small amount of time lamenting on the lameness of being able to smell, see, and hear evil coming and being incapable of stopping it. In honor of Drew, I've made a list of superpowers which, in certain contexts, could be even lamer than his.

Disclaimer: These aren't the ten worst super powers or necessarily even powers held by actual heroes.  Naturally there are powers that are entirely undesirable (the ability to turn oneself into a diaper) or ludicrous (the power to vanish into thin air...once), so the following is simply a list of powers, imagined or real (which is to say, imagined by someone else), that wouldn't necessarily make a superman super and might leave you in worse shape than if you'd had them to begin with.

10. External combustion (i.e., flaming on): A staple of superpowers, the ability to surround oneself in an aura of flame makes for outstanding cover art and dramatic action sequences replete with smoke-filled skies. One must consider the drawbacks, however, namely the flammability of objects around you (just imagine battling in a paper mill...or a gas station) and the need for specially tailored fire-retardant underwear, which can't be cheap.

9. Talking to animals: First we should make a distinction. The ability to simply talk to animals does not grant you dominion over them. I can talk to my children, but I am often powerless to get them to obey even the most simple of commands (i.e. please stop sucking Jell-O through your straw). Therefore, while the ability to control animals would be awesome, simply being able to talk to them would probably be boring as conversations would run from "Can I eat you?" to "Please don't step on me!" to "Where did I put my nuts?"

8. X-ray vision: Granted superspies the world over would relish in such a gift, and it might bring down the astronomical costs of an ER visit for your kid's baseball injury, but there is a reason we have fences, walls, clothes, and skin. There are lots of things you just don't want to see. Like what's going on inside my stomach right now, and what most people really look like in the morning.

7. Rock form: While there are certainly stalwart heroes that are either primarily made of some rocklike substance or are capable of creating an exoskeleton of them, the ability to transform oneself completely into a rock leaves a little to be desired. While useful when battling hordes at the top of a hill, the lack of appendages, not to mention the lack of eyes, ears, mouth, nose, muscle, bone, weapons, and unassisted movement means you are probably just going to get stuck at the bottom of that hill after rolling down it.

6. Atomic farts: Literally the ability to create near nuclear explosions by means of one's flatulence. Naturally the hero with this power would concurrently be blessed with an invulnerable digestive tract as an added bonus. However the costs associated with the power, both in terms of ancillary property damage and potential loss of life (can you control your flatulence's reach and direction?), plus the heroes constant need for extra tights, far outweighs this power's utility. Plus it makes for awkward dates.

5. Self-replication: Imagine if there were only two of you. Or twelve. Fantastic. Except I personally have a hard enough time keeping track of me. Ever seen the movie Multiplicity with Michael Keaton? Me neither. But I'm guessing having multiple copies of yourself out there only leads to trouble or they wouldn't have made a movie out of it.

4. Magnetism: This is different from the ability to manipulate magnetic fields (ala Magneto). This is simply the ability to turn oneself into a giant magnet. Awesome when you can't quite reach your spoon at the dinner table, less so when the steak knife comes flying at you too. Really awkward when the family minivan comes crashing through the garage wall towards you giving a wide opening for all your power tools to head your way as well. Definitely a power you will want to learn to control quickly.

3. Sonic scream: Yes, I know it has its uses, but as a father I've come to realize the true agonizing power that high-pitched wailing can have on a person, and it is not something I would inflict on my worst enemy.

2. Liquefication: Yes, the ability to liquefy oneself is incredibly useful when a supervillain is about to blast you with an anti-matter ray and you happen to be standing over a sewer drain; however, turning oneself into a puddle has numerous drawbacks, including the "ewww!" factor, the potential for bystander accidents (slippery when wet), and the fact that janitors everywhere are suddenly your mortal enemies. "Mop-Hands Hannigan! I should have known it was you!"

1. Anatomical Liberation: I'm not making this up (see Arm-Fall-Off Boy, an honest-to-goodness hero in the D.C. pantheon): This is the ability to sever a part of your own body and use it independently of the rest of you (like having just your hand scuttle through a tiny opening to retrieve a secret document). However, this power does not automatically come with regeneration, so you have to find said limb in order to get it back, and it's possible that said body part may decide to split permanently, taking on a life of its own. Not to mention there are actually few body parts I would trust to just go off and fight crime without me.

Thanks for sharing your top ten list, John!  If you'd like to share your own lame superpower ideas or just want to find out more about Sidekicked, you can visit the author at www.johndavidanderson.org or on Facebook at JohnDavidAndersonAuthor.

You're interested in checking out the rest of the Sidekicked Superhero blog tour stops (they have giveaways!), right? Good!

Oh, and that giveaway I mentioned!  The kind folks at Walden Pond Press are providing one signed copy of Sidekicked for a lucky blog reader.  To enter, simply fill out the FORM.  Giveaway open to US addresses only, will end on July 27 at 11:59pm EST.  Winner will be selected randomly and notified via email.  And I'll just tell you now, you can earn an extra entry by commenting on this post with a lame superpower.  Pick one of Mr. Anderson's or make up one of your own!

With not nearly enough power comes way too much responsibility.

Andrew Bean might be a part of H.E.R.O., a secret organization for the training of superhero sidekicks, but that doesn’t mean that life is all leaping tall buildings in single bounds. First, there’s Drew’s power: Possessed of super senses – his hearing, sight, taste, touch, and smell are the most powerful on the planet – he’s literally the most sensitive kid in school. There’s his superhero mentor, a former legend who now spends more time straddling barstools than he does fighting crime. And then there’s his best friend, Jenna – their friendship would be complicated enough if she weren’t able to throw a Volkswagen the length of a city block. Add in trying to keep his sidekick life a secret from everyone, including his parents, and the truth is clear: Middle school is a drag even with superpowers.

But this was all before a supervillain long thought dead returned to Justicia, superheroes began disappearing at an alarming rate, and Drew’s two identities threatened to crash head-on into each other. Drew has always found it pretty easy to separate right from wrong, good from evil. It’s what a superhero does. But what happens when that line starts to break down?

Fine print: Blog tour and giveaway organized by Walden Pond Press.  I did not receive any compensation for this post.

sea change author guest post

Debut author S.M. Wheeler is here today at Adventures of Cecelia Bedelia with a guest post about her novel Sea Change and its origins in fairy tale.  Sea Change was released in hardcover by Tor on June 18, 2013.  

I spent the first thirteen years of my life on a slow-motion tour of the United States, following my father’s work in the telecommunication business, with a brief side trip to Jamaica. Settling down at last in Upstate New York when my parents purchased an inn, I spent a difficult year attempting to adapt to the small local school and the company of my agemates. Ultimately, my family made the decision to educate me at home. Some of my time came to revolve around the business, which grew to include a bookstore and restaurant; some of my attention went to the school textbooks from which I learned. Mostly, I read and wrote.

Fantasy, science fiction, myth, folklore—I favored the unreal in reading and told the same sort of stories as soon as I could articulate those ideas in words. This became an important tool when I developed several chronic health problems in my adolescence. Rather than using the world of fantasy to escape from these, I normalized them by creating disabled characters within the familiar landscapes of the fantastic. One o’ clock in the morning with an unruly mind and aching joints was best faced with characters whose hallucinations and missing limbs were oversized projections of my own difficulties.

I flew out of Upstate to California for college with one suitcase of clothes and ten boxes of books. I am now living with family while attending the University of San Diego, where I am pursuing an English degree, a Classics minor, and all excuses to write fiction.

I credit the fact that I finished my first novel, Sea Change, in part to the inspiration of the Grimms’ Fairy Tales.

I first hit upon fairytales as a young teen in a bookstore decorated with dragon statuettes and sticks of incense. This was already my natural habitat: my father introduced me to fantasy when he read my child-self Peter S. Beagle’s The Last Unicorn, and I’d inherited the D&D Monster Manuals from his college days. As I browsed through the section on monsters and cryptozoology, I came across Russian Fairytales: decorated sparsely with stylized illustrations by A. Alexeieff, translation by Norbert Guterman, cover imprinted with a gold gilt pheasant. I wanted it terribly and my parents were (are) terrible at saying no to books.

Today, my library is double-stacked in a too-small bookcase and consists primarily of folklore and fairytales. I can’t say any one tale in that first Russian collection sparked this fascination, as I’d read my way through so quickly as to leave an impression of one continuous, if fragmentary, novel. The tropes and archetypes, the arbitrary magic and bizarre tasks, the brutality: these stuck with me. You can even prompt me to exercise my oral storytelling abilities by asking after some bit of folklore or fairytale. I pride myself on my rendition of “The Baboon’s Circumcision” particularly, which required three runs before I figured out who would best serve as the main character.  

(Yes, I have told a story called “The Baboon’s Circumcision” to three different people. The reactions I garnered were, respectively, “I have no idea what actually happened in that story other than it was disturbing”, “Why did you tell me that?”, and laughter. This one has a punch line, and it goes “The baboon said, ‘Oh, brother, you’ve been terribly hurt!’ and fled.”)

Sea Change isn’t a punch line kind of book (there is one joke about testicles, granted). Rather, it nods to the pitiless side of the tales. I would not say that gritty means true, nor that there’s a greater interest in the old versions versus the later bowdlerized ones, or even—further back—what we dream of as the original oral tales. I went through a period of reading children’s books to see what they had done with the raw material, which I recommend to any author who works with fairytales. It’s instructive. I was upset at the alterations made to soften the stories until I reflected on the fact that I quite changed them.

For example: women have agency in Sea Change. Ugliness is not cured. Biological parents are not faultless.

I do credit myself with doing well by the original material all the same. Which is to say: it might be that an evil step-mother and her ugly daughter are not thrown into a barrel studded with nails and rolled into a river, but I’ve included my share of violence and sexuality. The main character, Lilly, is a somber young woman; her traits of industriousness, politeness, and self-sacrifice are all virtues of the Grimm heroine (excepting the trickster tales, like “The Three Spinners”). I’ve always liked the trope where a character gets bits lopped off—that’s here, though married with the ability to cut open a character’s guts without subsequent death (see “The Wolf and the Seven Young Kids”). 

Looking back on the process, on the fairytales and folklore closest to my heart, and what they did for my writing, there is one that has kept with me for all the years since I first read it. The title is translated as “A Tale About the Boy Who Went Forth to Learn What Fear Was” by Jack Zipes. Once in a while, you come across a story with which you can identify whole-hearted, and the protagonist’s inability to feel the creeps, his social naivety and quiet acceptance of a world that doesn’t make that much sense—well. There’s quite a lot of him in Lilly, too.

And least to say this is another one I can be prompted to tell; at the end, after the wife has dumped a bucket of cold water and minnows down the back of the protagonist’s shirt, it’s with sympathy and satisfaction that I exclaim his final line: “Oh! So that’s the creeps!”

Thank you for joining us, S.M. Wheeler!  I know I've enjoyed Lilly's journey in Sea Change, and I think any fan of dark fairy tales will do so as well.

The unhappy child of two powerful parents who despise each other, young Lilly turns to the ocean to find solace, which she finds in the form of the eloquent and intelligent sea monster Octavius, a kraken. In Octavius’s many arms, Lilly learns of friendship, loyalty, and family. When Octavius, forbidden by Lilly to harm humans, is captured by seafaring traders and sold to a circus, Lilly becomes his only hope for salvation. Desperate to find him, she strikes a bargain with a witch that carries a shocking price. 

Her journey to win Octavius’s freedom is difficult. The circus master wants a Coat of Illusions; the Coat tailor wants her undead husband back from a witch; the witch wants her skin back from two bandits; the bandits just want some company, but they might kill her first. Lilly's quest tests her resolve, tries her patience, and leaves her transformed in every way. 

A powerfully written debut from a young fantasy author, Sea Change is an exhilarating tale of adventure, resilience, and selflessness in the name of friendship.

leviathan – guest post by ginny of ginnylou studio

Today’s guest blogger is Ginny of GinnyLou Studio (my sister, in other words).  She paints her nails obsessively and has an overly large accessory collection.  She’s also my best friend.

*ahem*

hi--it's Cecelia's favorite sister (never mind the only part) here with a post about steampunk.

why, oh why, would Cecelia ask her crafty sister to do a post?  

...

'cuz i'm a teacher.

of kids.

in the english language.  and various historical events.

and i'm smart.

(even though the last few sentences may have painted me in an unflattering light.  and please disregard the fact that i wrote the aforementioned sentences.)

...

or it might have something to do with the fact that i really like steampunk literature and have actually read quite a few books that fit the category.

yeah, that must be it.  okay, back on track here.

…

so i'm going to share a few of my thoughts on one of the first steampunk books i ever read: Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld.

see, back when my sister lived in Washington (state), we went to this book signing/ book talk event because she was still a book nerd back then.  i was her plus one, because let's face it, i'm the best plus one EVER, and i'm pretty sure she told me we could have food on the way up.

so, we went to this event and saw THE Scott Westerfeld, listened to him promote his book, saw the book trailer, asked questions, got in line for the book signing, got a picture with him, and walked out of the store with a free cardboard cutout of "Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days."  it was fun.

it was also my first exposure to steampunk.

i was impressed.

if you haven't seen the book trailer for Leviathan, you should really check it out.  it's one of the best book trailers i've ever seen, and i know legitimate school librarians with real school jobs who use that trailer when they talk about books to kids.

there's this combination of sound effects/ music that makes the video engaging, and somehow all of it unwittingly piques your interest in the entire world that Westerfeld creates.  it's mesmerizing.  you see and hear and can almost smell the machines clanking around the screen.  go watch it.  *phew* and i haven't even started talking about the illustrations.  (well, i guess now i've mentioned it.)  

so the book not only has a stellar author in Westerfeld, but also an amazing illustrator.  i'm not talking doodles with stick-like figures.  these pictures are full blown, 24"x36" print-worthy illustrations.  these illustrations give life to the machines and beasts and contraptions, and imagery in the steampunk book.  (please also note that the following two books in the series sport their own full page pictures as well--AWESOME-SAUCE!)  some of the illustrations pop up in the book trailer, but they're really best seen in person in the pages of Leviathan... they stand out when you're flipping through your book, reading little captions below pictures to see what's coming ahead (but not in a "give it all away" type of way).

i must admit, i think Leviathan was the perfect introduction to steamunk.  it has the pictures, it has great story elements (more on that later).  AND, it just happens to be historical fiction (albeit extreme historical fiction).  basically, right up my alley!

lots of things i liked about this book:

1.  action scenes.  this book isn't too heavy on the expository sections... Westerfeld shows us the world, but he also doesn't bore us to death with detail-overload.  the action scenes were fun for me because i've always been a fan of war movies... my dad used to borrow war movies from the library and i swear i've probably seen 3/4 of all the war movies ever made.  the action wasn't gratuitous either, i mean, the setting of the book is a war.  it's the clankers vs. darwinists--machines vs. beasts.

2.  there's a good mix of fantasy/ history.  the Darwinist animals in this story are some of the most interesting elements in my humble opinion.  not that i don't enjoy a piece of machinery as much as the next guy, but Westerfeld made the 'beasties' likeable even if they were those attacking bat/ bird things.  and the title "Leviathan" actually refers to the name of the Darwinist ship, a huge honking whale/ blimp.  it's awesome.  and like the book trailer says, it's 1914, Europe is close to war, but this story is a re-working of the history of WWI... it both follows the main points, yet doesn't.  sorry for being cryptic.  you should just read the book.

3.  there's this awesome guy/ girl thing.  it's that painfully truthful representation of girls... or one girl in particular: Deryn (who poses as a boy so she can work on the ship).  she over thinks her relationship with Alek, the son of the assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand.  and she doesn't just do a little bit of over thinking, she does the adolescent version of over thinking.  i know this because it sounds just like the kids i teach in school.  *le sigh*  and then there's Alek... he's a typical guy--he's still figuring out life, he doesn't know what he thinks about girls, or his role in the war, and he's clueless.  there are plenty of hints throughout the book that point towards the truth about Deryn.  does he pick up on them?  of course not.  he's a guy.

4.  the occasional caper-ish type of scene.  this is different than the action scenes.  i guess it's more about the main characters actually acting like teenagers.  Westerfeld must have a really good model to study in terms of teenaged behavior, because he does a really truthful telling of what they're like.  almost painfully so.

all in all, i guess i didn't really hit on too many "steampunk" elements, but don't worry, this book is squarely/ firmly/ concretely in the steampunk genre, and will be for a long long time.  but never fear, there are tons of fun steampunk-y slang phrases ("Barking spiders!" and "You're a bum-rag" which is really just an insult, not a steampunk phrase...) and there are also lots of gadgets too... guns, tools ,machines, that type of thing.

recommended for: adventure fans, coming-of-age stories, slight romance lovers, gadget geeks, and other people that are easily swayed by book trailers, fancy covers, offers of food, and book blogging sisters.  so pretty much everyone.

It is the cusp of World War I, and all the European powers are arming up. The Austro-Hungarians and Germans have their Clankers, steam-driven iron machines loaded with guns and ammunition. The British Darwinists employ fabricated animals as their weaponry. Their Leviathan is a whale airship, and the most masterful beast in the British fleet. Aleksandar Ferdinand, prince of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, is on the run. His own people have turned on him. His title is worthless. All he has is a battle-torn Stormwalker and a loyal crew of men. 

Deryn Sharp is a commoner, a girl disguised as a boy in the British Air Service. She's a brilliant airman. But her secret is in constant danger of being discovered. 

With the Great War brewing, Alek's and Deryn's paths cross in the most unexpected way...taking them both aboard the Leviathan on a fantastical, around-the-world adventure. One that will change both their lives forever.

If you'd like to see more steampunk goodness, check out the Steampunk Week in September calendar of events!

steampunk! an anthology of fantastically rich and strange stories – guest post by alexis of lit from woe

Today’s guest blogger is Alexis of Lit From Woe.  She’s part of my DC FYA book club, and is (of course) smart & funny. Deadly combination.

HELLO DETROIT!

This is not Detroit. I've never even BEEN to Detroit. But it sounded punk rock and a bit mechanical, and since this week is steampun…

Oh. NOT that kind of steampunk? Man. I'm two and oh here.

Okay. *Steampunk* Like, the sub-genre. In kid lit.

Got it.

I don't think I'm alone in having more than a bit of private embarrassment over the fact that, while I like the *idea* of steampunk, and I LOVE the aesthetics, I'm rarely enticed, let alone bowled over, by steampunk in literature. Maybe because the concept is TOO visual, it's hard to sustain interest in a non-visual medium. Maybe my imagination sucks.

I know, I know. This whole post is going all the wrong ways. BEAR WITH ME.

So I don't love stempunk in literature, but I really really *want to.* My TBR pile, it's always open to new steampunk efforts. And even if I'm not the right reader for most of them, occasionally I find things I love, and Steampunk! An Anthology of Fantastically Rich and Strange Stories, edited by Kelly Link and Gavin J. Grant, is one of the efforts I loved.

Not surprising, really. Kelly Link is a superhero with words. I would buy her Pretty Monsters collection for every person I ever met, if only I had the money. The things she does with stories…seriously. SERIOUSLY. She takes genres and peels them inside out and rightside back, and makes you wonder how it is possible that no one ever thought of those stories (monsters; aliens; wolves; ghosts) from those angles before.

Which is probably why I was so impressed by her edited collection of steampunk short stories, and bowled the heck over by both her own and Libba Bray's contributions: their stories are steampunk, but pulled inside out and rightside back.

In Link's "The Summer People," the story opens on a contemporary girl, home miserably sick from school, dealing with a myopic, self-interested dad on his way out the door for a "week or three" to "get right with God." Again. There is NyQuil and television and Lexuses and prayer meetings and hooch running in this world. There are also fairies.

But the story isn't about the fairies (although Fran's entire existence hinges on her relationship with them), or about the hooch running or prayer meetings (although Fran's entire existence hinges around her father's relationship to THOSE), or even about the magical clockwork toys the summer people leave for Fran as gifts for her help (although those are as fascinating as any a clockwork bauble popped up in steampunk lore).

No, what "The Summer People" is about is how Fran is living her life, and what she does, good or bad, to take it by the horns and make it HERS. This is steampunk where the steam power and clockwork is incidental background noise, and the real story is what happens in and around it. This is steampunk where punk ideals—fighting against/within/despite/in the face of the system, wearing your own decisions like a bloody crown, making your own damn mark on the world—those are what matter most. And it's fantastic.

The word I most associate with Libba Bray (incidentally, doing a The Diviners event @ DC's own Politics & Prose this very evening!) is AMBITIOUS, and with her entry in the Steampunk! collection, she does not disappoint. "The Last Ride of the Glory Girls" is just as punk rock, with just as much spitting by the heroine(s) in the face of the clockwork world at large as is Link's "Summer People," just with fewer fairies and a few more train heists.

(Although, interestingly, there is still plenty of "getting right with God" serving as motivation for the heroine to grab the reins of her own life…)

"Glory Girls," for all it is steampunk, is also a western. It is, too, sci-fi. But the generic trappings aren't what make the story. When Adelaide Jones rides with the Glory Girls, she is not a cowgirl. When she signs up with the Pinkertons, she is not a dusty private detective. When she fiddles together a clockwork device that bubbles time, she is not a steampunk engineer.

What she is is a girl whose been left behind and forced into working the system the only way the system will let her. What she is is a girl who is on her way to having just about too damn much, and would you mind greatly if I go ahead and explode my way through a life I've decided on for myself, you love-drowning, backwards society, please and thank you and a big EFF YOU to you all.

She is Adelaide Jones, and her story is not ABOUT the aesthetic trappings of steampunk. That's just icing.

So, privately—now publicly—embarrassed as I may be to admit that literary steampunk just isn't my bag, I am MORE than happy to shill for steampunk that lets the steampunk do its own thing in the background, so long as the characters are allowed to punch their way through their own lives up front.

Steampunk! An Anthology of Fantastically Rich and Strange Stories: consider yourself shilled.

Imagine an alternate universe where romance and technology reign. Where tinkerers and dreamers craft and re-craft a world of automatons, clockworks, calculating machines, and other marvels that never were. Where scientists and schoolgirls, fair folk and Romans, intergalactic bandits, utopian revolutionaries, and intrepid orphans solve crimes, escape from monstrous predicaments, consult oracles, and hover over volcanoes in steam-powered airships. Here, fourteen masters of speculative fiction, including two graphic storytellers, embrace the genre's established themes and refashion them in surprising ways and settings as diverse as Appalachia, ancient Rome, future Australia, and alternate California. Visionaries Kelly Link and Gavin J. Grant have invited all-new explorations and expansions, taking a genre already rich, strange, and inventive in the extreme and challenging contributors to remake it from the ground up. The result is an anthology that defies its genre even as it defines it.

Interested in more steampunk? Check out the Steampunk Week in September calendar of events!

guest post on neil gaiman and a giveaway

One of my most faithful blog followers is Alyce of At Home with Books. She seems to read in all genres, and her reading choices (and reviews) always make me reconsider my old standbys. So it was an honor to be asked to contribute to her one of her current weekly events, ‘Best and Worst.’ I chose to write about Neil Gaiman. I know what you’re thinking – does the man really do worst? Find out for yourself and read my thoughts over at Alyce’s blog!

And to make life a bit sweeter this holiday season, also enter to win any Neil Gaiman book (up to a $25 US value), shipped from the Book Depository. Entering this giveaway is simple – just fill out the FORM! Open internationally, will end December 31^st at 11:59pm EST. Winner will be selected randomly and notified via email.

Feel free to tell me in the comments which Neil Gaiman book you’d choose!

wednesday love

The lovely Jo of fantasy book review blog Ink and Paper is featuring a book blogger interview with ME today! SO, you should probably go over there and read it. Like, soon.

Also, I’m sipping some delicious, home-brewed Starbucks Casi Cielo right now. Just so you know.

And to round out the link love, if you didn’t catch my guest post on Steph Bowe’s Hey! Teenager of the Year last month, go over and check it out. I talk about The Good Earth, a book that changed my life. And that post itself was a pretty big deal, as well – my high school English teacher found me on Facebook afterwards! Good + crazy. Hope you’re all having a marvelous Wednesday!

VERY.

IMPORTANT.

UPDATE!

If you'd like to win Gail Carriger's Soulless, head over to vvb32reads - she's giving away a copy!