Melissa Senate is on the GCC with me, and she's the author of See Jane Date, The Solomon Sisters Wise Up, a bunch of other books and now:
THE BREAKUP CLUB.

A title that good need little pushing. Four bad-breakups push four different people together -- and voila! a club.
I'm all over it.
Bras & Broomsticks author Sarah Mlynowski says Senate "is definitely one of my favorite chick-lit writers. Her books are always feel-good, fast-paced and hilariously funny!"

Senate's debut novel for teens, THEODORA TWIST, comes out in May. It's about an unpopular 16-year-old who goes from invisible to famous when the reigning teen queen of Hollywood stays with her family for the shoot of her reality TV show about being a regular teen (she's not!).

Without more ado, here is Melissa's cringe-worthy list of horrible things her top three worst boyfriends ever said to her.

Horrible Things Top Three Worst Boyfriends Said:
by Melissa Senate

1) “My mother is uncomfortable with our relationship because your brother is married to a Chinese woman.” (We broke up later that day.)

2) Upon being picked up from hospital after minor operation: “I like your hair best when you blow-dry it straight. You like your hair straight. So why’d you leave it curly today?” (Broke up the next day. Hey, I was under anesthesia.)

3) “You know that Seal song, Kiss of the Rose, when he sings: ‘The more I get of you, the stranger it feels?’ That’s exactly how I feel about you.” (Took two more weeks to break up, but I was young.)

I thought John Green's blog was syndicated on LJ, but apparently not: I had to go to his website to read this fun photo-documentation of him winning the Printz award on the streets of NYC.

Maryrose Wood is my pal and a VERY VERY funny writer.

Her book, SEX KITTENS AND HORN DAWGS FALL IN LOVE is, as School Library Journal promises and I can attest, "squeaky clean" despite the racy title, and it nearly gave me a side ache from giggling when I read it. If you're wondering how to make your mom buy you a book with that title, Maryrose will tell you exactly how to do it, on her site.

SEX KITTENS is about Felicia, a Greenwich Village (that's downtown NYC) girl who boldly tells her crush how much she likes him, and convinces him to engage with her in a science experiment to determine why the vibes aren't flowing the other way...or will they?

The BCCB said of her: "Wood's effervescent, often idiosyncratic style rather suggests P.G. Wodehouse as a Greenwich Village girl ("Kibosh! I say to my heart. I spray a pffft of X-Begone upon you!")." And if you've read Wodehouse
(what?? You haven't read Wodehouse? Get thee to a bookstore and purchase Jeeves in the Offing immediately!),
you know that's a mega-compliment.

Anyhow, the book hit stores a couple days ago, and if you go out and buy it now, you'll thank me later.

xxxo
--E

I'm pleased to say The Boyfriend List is one of the American Library Association's Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers.

Here are some of the other books on the list -- though there are more. Check them out, especially if you think of yourself as not loving to read....

Black, Holly. Valiant: a Modern Tale of Faerie
Bradley, Alex. 24 Girls in 7 Days.
Brown, Tracy. Criminal Minded.
Castellucci, Cecil. Boy Proof.
De la Pena, Matt. Ball Don’t Lie.
Flake, Sharon. Bang!
Green, John. Looking for Alaska
Hiaasen, Carl. Flush.
Meyer, Stephenie. Twilight.
Newman, Leslea. Jailbait.
Olin, Sean. Killing Britney.
Shan, Darren. Lord Loss.
Standiford, Natalie. The Dating Game: first two books

Congratulations to John Green, whose wonderful novel, Looking For Alaska, won the Printz award for best young adult novel of the year.

It's a really funny, really involving, thought-provoking book and you all should read it.

I'm also pleased about the Caldecott winner (best illustrated book). It was Chris Rashka for The Hello Goodbye Window, by Norton Juster (who also wrote The Phantom Tollbooth). That is a really excellent picture book, and he's a great artist.

Not Your Mother's Book Club, run by the oh-so-awesome people at Books Inc in San Francisco, is a club for teenagers where you read YA fiction and discuss. Plus there are author appearances, cool giveaways of early copies of great books, writing workshops, and more.

For example, they've had
Holly Black
Cecil Castelluci
Chris Crutcher
Rosemary Graham
Deb Caletti
and all kinds of other people, just in their first year.

Now, it exists online as well!
So join up already.
You need a Live Journal account, which is free, and you can use any mysterious name you choose. (that also gives you a blog, but you don't have to use it).
So you go to
Not Your Mother's Book Club and click the little plus button to join. Then you can post as a member of the community, comment on other people's posts, etc.

If you want to get fancy, google LJ Icons and get yourself a cute icon.

Once you're there, come check out my Live Journal Friends List, which is all YA novelists (or people who review them) all the time. It's like a blog syndicator -- all their blogs send a little feed over to the friends list.

You really won't believe how many YA writers are on LJ and posting regularly. You can fangirl (or fanboy) yourself into quite a tizzy.

Laurie Faria Stolarz is on the GCC with me, and her YA series started with Blue is for Nightmares and is now up to Red is for Remembrance. They're magical thrillers about Stacey Brown, a boarding school girl whose persistent nightmares predict horrors that come true in real life. Only the folk magic she learned from her grandmother can protect her.

Blue is obviously the book to start with, and it was a 2005 Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers and a 2004 Top Ten Teen Pick Nominee. So check out the series if you like a good supernatural thriller.

Anyway. Boys.
What else?

Stolarz very amusingly sent us both a boyfriend list for Stacey, her heroine -- but also one for herself. The latter is (I assume) part dream-world, part reality. Perfect for someone whose novels are all about the blurring of those two spheres.

Stacey Brown’s Boyfriend List:
(from the Blue is for Nightmares series by Laurie Faria Stolarz)

Chad – my first serious crush who also happened to be my best friend’s boyfriend.

PJ – okay, not really, but one night during freshman year, after too much studying and not enough sleep, he was looking kinda cute and we almost kissed - almost.

Jacob – my soul mate. I mean, who else travels across the country to save your life even though he hasn’t even met you yet? I love Jacob and hope things can go back to normal soon.

Tim – after I lost Jacob, my entire universe came crashing down. Tim was there to help pick up the pieces. It didn’t hurt that he was extremely cute, thoughtful, and funny. A gentleman to the core, I’m glad he doesn’t hold a grudge about what happened – or should I say what almost happened – between us.

AND NOW:

Laurie Stolarz’s Boyfriend List

John Cusack – I’ve had a serious – serious! – crush on him since The Sure Thing.


Michael Vartan – (left) How much did I want to be Drew Barrymore when Michael Vartan ran across the baseball field to give her a big smooch at the end of Never Been Kissed.

Andy Garcia – This one’s sort of self-explanatory – for me anyway.

Nicolas Cage – There’s just something about him.

Ed Stolarz – My husband and best friend. He’s supportive and keeps me laughing. He reads all my work, helps keep the house clean, and loves me very much.

P.S.Here's Laurie's Blog!

Would you like to know what happened when Roo from The Boyfriend List joined up with the Tate Prep Charity Holiday Bake Sale, back when she was dating Jackson, and she ended up having to be on a cupcake making team with Heidi, Jackson's ex?
(hint: it involves baked goods in unmentionable shapes)

My short story, Bake Sale, is in the anthology Not Like I'm Jealous or Anything , which hits stores Feb 14, and includes stories by Ned Vizzini, Jaclyn Moriarty, Christian Baumann, Dyan Sheldon and Susan Juby.

If you're in NYC, come hear some of us read from the collection! (More on exactly who -- later)

WHEN: February 19, probably 6 pm (I'll confirm!)
WHO: only people of legal drinking age
WHERE: Barbes (pronouced Bar-bess) 376 9th St. (@ 6th Ave.) Park Slope, Brooklyn
Take the F train to 7th Ave. in Brooklyn, which lets you at at 7th Ave. and 9th Street. Then walk downslope 1 block .
COST: nothing

RESULT:
You are a TOMBOY TEMPTRESS.

The 80s teen film heroine you are most like is MARY STUART MASTERSON from SOME KIND OF WONDERFUL. True to yourself and loyal to those you love, you don't have time for silly things like makeup and high heels. But guys'll never notice you if you always play it tough, so take a cue from ERIC STOLTZ's Keith Nelson, and show your sensitive side from time to time. A little lip gloss never hurt anybody either.

Take the Quiz
(Note: this is the link to theMeg Cabot Book Club quiz page -- but there's a new one every month, so if you're clicking on this and it's not January 06, you may have to look at the list of back-quizzes once you get there)

Anyway, I liked this quiz. Except.
It asked what color eyeliner I wear, and then chastized me for no makeup!
But I wear MAKEUP. I wear lipstick and blush and eyeshadow. I am just a firm objector to eyeliner as something that
1) I wore in the 80s to excess
2) makes my eyes actually appear smaller and a bit piggy
3) always runs down my face because my eyes water
4) is hard to put on well in the 45 seconds I allow for makeup application

Don't get me started on MASCARA. I gave it up one day and have never looked back.

--E

I asked Tanya Lee Stone, author of A Bad Boy Can Be Good For a Girl to send me a boyfriend list. Because, as you can tell from her book title, she's gotta be like an expert or something.

Her book is getting AWESOME reviews, by the way - School Library Journal said: "This is not a book that will sit quietly on any shelf; it will be passed from girl to girl to girl." And Libba Bray, author of A Great & Terrible Beauty, says it's got "...the kind of tell-it-like-it-is wisdom that comes from your best girlfriends. It's irresistible."

Okay.
You can learn a lot from this list, people. It's got wedding rings hidden in sock drawers, creepy guys offering rides home, rigged spin-the-bottle games, ugly dresses and the tango. (But: lest you think those teen years were too out of control, Tanya said to tell me this list goes well into her 20s.)

Oh, and Tanya's one of the top secret (not) authors I'll be touring with this April for the release of her book and Fly on the Wall. So if you're a bookstore or a library or a radio show or something in Boston, New York, Raleigh/Durham, Washinton or Philadelphia, you should call up Random House publicity and talk to them about the Teen Voices tour.

BOYS I HATED TO LOVE
by Tanya Lee Stone

Thanks for asking me for a boyfriend list, E! In honor of A Bad Boy Can Be Good for a Girl, I thought I’d look back on some of the bad boys I hated to love.

Where it all Began. Seventh grade. Spin the bottle. The beginning of the end. Tony P. planted one on me and became my designated Spin the Bottle partner for the rest of the year—whenever we could get away with rigging the game, that is. I could never bring myself to talk to him at school, though.

Eighth grade. Even though I wore the ugliest dress you’ve ever seen, my moves won first place in a dance contest. The real prize? Jeff D. asked me out the next day. That boy had moves I didn’t want to know about!

Same year. Brian B. was in my sister’s crowd—a senior. Of course he never looked my way, but a girl can dream.

Now, the years all run together in my brain, but the boys, I remember.

Chuck L. was a very bad boy who I truly did hate, for a while anyway. It took the entire year but somehow, he changed my mind, even though he didn’t get far. Now he hated that!

Bob P. smoke and drank and listened to The Who, what’s a girl to do?

Bob T. said he didn’t have a girlfriend but did. And I believed him—twice.

Bob S. caught me staring at him one day and asked if I needed a ride home. Thank god there was no highway between school and home, because two stop signs later, I hopped out and ran for my life.

I gave up Bobs after that.

Todd Q. cried when I left after visiting him for the weekend. I hated that. Dumped him. Now I know better. Bad boys cry like the rest of us.

Todd S. said he loved me, then told someone else he loved her while I was at my cousin’s wedding.

Chad T. was at my cousin’s wedding. Hey, it’s not like I told him I loved him!

Todd F. said he did have a girlfriend, but an overwhelming thing for me. I believed him—twice.

I gave up Todds after that.

Vlad Z. stole my heart in a foreign country (gee, can you guess which one?). When he showed up to give it back, he wasn’t alone and she wasn’t happy. Neither was I, since her existence was news to me, and about as welcome as a bad bowl of borscht.

Eli P. made all my morning train rides better. Hey, it was a long commute!

Kent O. was a bad boy in a room swarming with models but he only had eyes for me. Apparently, that was enough for me to give him carte blanche to be hideously awful yet forgiven over and over and over again. No worries—I finally wised up, but ladies—it took waaayyy tooooo loooong. Don’t let this happen to you!

Oscar T. knew how to Tango—do I really have to say more? I mean, it is the forbidden dance and all. No, that’s the Lambada. No matter, he knew how to do both extremely well…and that’s all she wrote.

John C. was extremely upfront and honest. Brooding and vulnerable. Sexy and in pain. He spilled his whole heart out to me; all his deepest, darkest secrets. In his defense, he only left one out. Unfortunately, it was that his wedding ring was buried at the bottom of his sock drawer along with his conscience. Thankfully I didn’t get far enough into loving him to, well, love him, love him.

Make it stop! Now I’ve got the one I’m keeping and it’s all good.