Paula Chase's YA novel, SO NOT THE DRAMA (love the title) - -is about a girl who wants to get in with her high school's glitterati -- only her best friend does it first, and she's not invited. Plus her sociology class's experiment to rid the school of prejudice is seriously backfiring.
Preview it here.
Her boyfriend list, below, gave me some serious new crushes.

THE GROUPIE BOYFRIEND LIST
By Paula Chase
Now, I’m not advocating becoming a groupie. But IF I ever were to be one, the guys I’d stalk, err…admire from afar are basketball players, drummers, saxophone players and the occasional rapper. Keep in mind that these guys are ideal boyfriends, not because of their appearance but their skill. So, here’s my, If I were a Groupie boyfriend list:

•Questlove – the drummer for The Roots. First of all, he looks like a big ol’ teddy bear. And what’s not to love about teddy bears? Second, he’s the drummer but basically second in command of the group. Men in charge are hot! Third, have you heard any of The Roots music? If not, shame on ya. They’re like this crazy eclectic, soul/hip hop band. No misogyny here! And when a guy respects his momma enough to make sure their music’s lyrical content is respectful…you got it, that’s hot!


•Allen Iverson – I know Alley I is coming up on his twilight years in basketball. If he leaves the NBA without a championship, it’ll be nothing short of a shame because he’s sacrificed his body for his profession. He plays hard and has the injuries to prove it. I’ve loved A.I.’s skill since his days at Georgetown. He was the fastest, scrappiest dude on the court and nothing is sexier than a feisty point guard.

•Boney James (saxophone player) – Saxophone music, I think, is the most sensuous sound on planet earth. Boney James is one of contemporary smooth jazz’s kings. His music could put you in a coma and I mean that in a good way! It’s just that smooth. I won’t even go there about the lip strength necessary to play the sax. I won’t even go there.

•Jay-Z – Hova has this whole former bad (very bad) boy turned millionaire mogul thing going on that is irresistibly attractive. Diddy only wished he were as smooth and genuinely confident as Jay-Z. Not to mention his lyrical flow is sick!! Listen to some of Jay-Z’s raps, especially his earlier stuff. The production combined with his linguistic gymnastics is groupie inducing. And his lips…shoot, I’m going there again.

Buy the book. Be Paula's Myspace friend. Read her blog!

Mystery novelist Sara Rosett sent us her real-life secret crush boyfriend list!
(Here's her Fly Survey from last time she visited.)

The boyfriends I never had (aka secret crushes)
by Sara Rosett

1. Michael—(6th grade) athletic. That’s about all I remember!
2. Robert—(junior high) quiet, smart. He was a swimmer with white blond hair and great shoulders. Sigh.
3. John—(high school) Witty, always made everyone laugh and kept it from getting too serious. Another blond (I’m seeing a trend here that I hadn’t ever noticed). I always had a hard time concentrating in typing class.
4. Jack—(college) Dark hair this time, but not interested. This was probably my shortest-lived crush because it wasn’t long after Jack that I met the guy I would marry. You guessed it, a blond. We’ve celebrated our fifteenth anniversary last year!

Rosett's new book, STAYING HOME IS A KILLER, features Ellie Avery, military wife and mother – and of course, sleuth. Ellie's ordered world is thrown into disarray when a fellow military spouse’s death looks more like murder than suicide. Toss in her husband’s deployment and her daughter’s separation anxiety, and Ellie has to keep the home fires burning as she sort clues from chaos and proves that home is not for killers.

So if you like Jill Churchill or Ayelet Waldman, Sarah Rosett's for you – and check out her blog! And her other blog, which is called Good Girls Kill For Money -- and the tag line is "Coffee, tea, or murder?". This one especially amuses me.

Saturday May 5, 2007

Noon - 5:00 p.m. in the library plaza
at Princeton Public Library, 65 Witherspoon Street, Princeton, NJ

THE PRINCETON TEEN BOOK BASH
Featuring authors of notable, popular young adult books.
Meet the authors, listen to them read from their work, and buy signed copies of their books.
Live entertainment will be featured. Rain or shine!

The list of participating authors last I heard, including ME:
Eireann Corrigan,
Sarah Beth Durst,
Daniel Ehrenhaft,
Emily Franklin,
E.R. Franks,
Mariah Fredricks,
Robin Friedman,
K.L. Going,
Mary Hogan,
Maureen Johnson,
Jennifer Anne Kogler,
Rob Krech,
Marie Lamba,
E. Lockhart,
David Lubar,
Carolyn MacCullough,
Leslie Margolis,
Wendy Mass,
Megan McCafferty,
Patricia MCCormick,
Blake Nelson,
Ann Rinaldi,
Kieran Scott,
Ned Vizzini,
T.K. Welsh
and Maryrose Wood.

The Dutch version of Fly on the Wall!
It's called The Miraculous Day that I Could and See and Hear Everything in the Boys Locker Room.
(um. In the story it's a week. But okay. Also, I used babelfish to translate the title, so I might have it completely wrong!)
Anyway, I am excited to show you the darling and racy cover.

I had an amazing time at Texas Library Association. I met wonderfully charming librarians, and everyone was so passionate and articulate! Teri Lesesne had done some kind of round-up of titles she recommends for the upcoming season, and Dramarama was one of them -- so I had people coming up all weekend and saying, ooh, Professor Nana recommends your book!
Fun city.

I also saw a great panel on "chick lit" for young adults with Melissa Kantor, Rachel Vail, Cecil Castelluci and Dana Reinhardt. They were so smart and had thoughtful and entertaining answers for every question. It was really one of the best panels I've seen.

Ally Carter's first YA book, I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You, is SO SO MUCH FUN.
Teenage girls train to be superspies at elite boarding school. Girl falls for normal un-super-spy boy, but can't tell him about her top-secret life.
The sequel, Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy, comes out this fall.

So I asked Carter to submit to the Dramarama Musical Theater Interview, and she said Yes! Below, she channels her inner Julie Andrews for us.

1. You were in a play in high school, weren't you? Tell me all about
it.

Yes, my mother was the speech and drama teacher at my small high school, and every year
her class would write and perform their own play. It was awesome and probably helping her
with those plays was the first real creative writing I ever did.

My year we penned and performed the instant classic "The Cow Moos at Midnight."

I was breathtaking as Agnes, the nun.

2. Give me song lyric that makes you laugh. Preferably from a show,
but I'll cut you some slack if whatever you quote is funny.

No doubt, hands-down, this honor goes to the line from the Gaston song in Beauty and the
Beast that goes "I use antlers in all of my decorating."

Of course, it probably doesn't hurt that my office is next door to this guy

3. If you've seen a show on Broadway, what was your first one? Whom
did you go with, who was the star, what did you think of it?

My first big show wasn't on Broadway, actually. It was in London's West End, and my family
was on a tour with a group from my school. We saw Me And My Girl, and it was fabulous.
We bought the tape and to this day I find myself walking around singing some of the songs.

4. What's your showbiz fantasy?

Well, when Disney optioned I'D TELL YOU I LOVE YOU BUT THEN I'D HAVE TO KILL YOU
they optioned the rights to everything from ice performances to feature films, so I'd have to
say Gallagher Girls, the musical, is my fantasy. (With me playing Mr. Solomon's love
interest, of course!)

5. Which Broadway diva are you, deep inside? And why? Ethel Merman,
Carol Burnett, Nell Carter, Kristin Chenoweth, Bernadette Peters,
Julie Andrews, Bebe Neuwirth, Audra McDonald, Carol Channing, Mary
Martin, Barbra Streisand? Or someone else?

I've got to go with Julie Andrews, not because I am so much like Julie Andrews but because I
really, really want to be like Julie Andrews and that's got to count for something.

6. Write me a nice little song lyric for the book you're promoting
right now. Please.

One of my readers actually composed a song for the Gallagher Girls musical, and if I may, I'd
just like to share her tremendous creation.

I'd Tell You I Love You... By Chris:

not to tell you i love because things could go so wrong
id tell you i love you, but i have to be strong
id tell you i love you because its true
but if i told you i love you, then id have to kill you

Music! Make-up! Extravagance! Free signed books!
And only two minutes of work:

YOU CAN WIN AN E. LOCKHART "extravabasket" of goodies OVER AT
Not Your Mother's Bookclub!

It includes
signed copies of lots of books,
audio books,
diva-esque treats from Sephora,
a CD I hand-made (well, with the help of the computer)
and more.

Go over there and read the contest guidelines even if you don't want an extravabasket
(and really, how can you not want an extravabasket?)
because
I got Maureen Johnson (Devilish, Girl at Sea, 13 Little Blue Envelopes)
and
Maryrose Wood (Why I Let My Hair Grow Out, Sex Kittens & Horn Dawgs Fall in Love)
both fabulouso YA authors
to write song lyrics about my books!

It only takes two minutes and a bit of wit to enter. You just plug your entry in the comments, or you email them to the bookclub. Deadline April 30

And spread the word!

--E

By some miracle of coincidence, YA novelist Cecil Castelluci (Boy Proof, Queen of Cool and the spankin'-new BEIGE, which I strongly recommend AND the new comic book series Plain Janes) was
just like me
and
just like Sadye in Dramarama
cast as a dorky, minor and probably male character
in a high school production of
A Midsummer Night's Dream, when
really she wanted to be Hermia.
Me, I wrote a book about it.
(It was really traumatizing! And funny! And bad. We had to wear electric blue unitards.)
Cecil, she got over it.
As you'll see below in the Dramarama Musical Theater Interview.

We also both saw Andrea McArdle and Danielle Brisbois in Annie on Broadway, back when we were young.

Miss Cecil went to the High School for the Performing Arts! She's in a band! She is way punk rock and musical theater, too, and I really like her books.
Below, she channels her inner Carol Channing for us.
(Also, check out the netflix links below for some awesome movie musical fun)

The Dramarama Musical Theater Interview
questions by me, answers by Cecil Castelluci

1. You were in a play in high school, weren't you? Tell me all about it.

I wasn't just in one play in High School! I was graded on being in them!

I attended the LaGuardia High School for the Performing Arts in New York City. Yes. It's the school that the movie (and TV show) FAME were based on. (If you don't know what I'm talking about, go netflix it!)

The senior play I was in was A MIDSUMMER NIGHTS DREAM and I was cast as a Cobweb, the Fairy. I'm not going to lie to you E. I cried, because I wanted to be Puck or Hermia and I blame my drama teacher who said that I was "not a mature enough actress to play those parts." Which really meant that he couldn't see my absolute brilliance and was a loser!

I ended up being the Assistant Director of the play, which pretty much meant that I got to get my chops up on directing, which was what I really wanted to do anyway, so maybe in retrospect it was OK that I played a Fairy. Also, Jennifer Elise Cox, who is a great actress, whom I'm sure you recognize, was Mustardseed, the fairy. So, just FYI, sometimes, it's OK to not be the star in the High School play.

By the way, Fairies Rock!

2. Give me song lyric that makes you laugh. Preferably from a show, but I'll cut you some slack if whatever you quote is funny.

We'd Like To Thank You (Herbert Hoover) from Annie

In ev'ry pot he said "a chicken"
But Herbert Hoover he forgot
Not only don't we have the chicken
We ain't got the pot!
Hey Herbie

I Cain't Say No! from Oklahoma!

I cain't resist a Romeo
In a sombrero and chaps
Soon as I sit on their laps
Somethin' inside of me snaps
I cain't say no!

3. If you've seen a show on Broadway, what was your first one? Whom did you go with, who was the star, what did you think of it?

I think the first Broadway Show I remember seeing was ANNIE (original cast) I went with my parents and our family friends David and Celina Kupferman.

Andrea McArdle was Annie. I think Sarah Jessica Parker and Danielle Brisbois were orphans in the one I saw. Pretty much it was AWESOME! And I sang tortured versions of Tomorrow for many years after that, probably much to the chagrin of my parents dinner guests.

4. What's your showbiz fantasy?

I know I'm mostly a writer and director and performance-arty kind of person, but I do know how to act, and I think it would be really cool to be in a Broadway play one day.

So, you know, I'm just putting it out there, cause I could do it. And it'd be hella fun. Pick me, Broadway!

5. Which Broadway diva are you, deep inside? And why? Ethel Merman, Carol Burnett, Nell Carter, Kristin Chenoweth, Bernadette Peters, Julie Andrews, Bebe Neuwirth, Audra McDonald, Carol Channing, Mary Martin, Barbra Streisand? Or someone else?

I think we can safely say that I am a bit of every single one of those Divas. But I'll go with Carol Channing because I met her once.

They were showing Thoroughly Modern Millie at the American Cinematheque and her autobiography JUST LUCKY I GUESS had just come out and I was the bookseller at the event. I got to sit next to her and we got along like gangbusters. She kept introducing me to everyone that came up to get their book signed as "Miss Cecil, if you please!" She even introduced me to Tippi Hedren! Le swoon!

6. Write me a nice little song lyric for the book you're promoting right now. Please.

from THE PLAIN JANES

Our names are Jane
Jane, Jayne, Jane and Polly Jane.
We're not the same
I like Sports!
I like Drama!
I like Science!
I like Art
We're glad to be plain
We're Janes

from BEIGE

In Los Angeles
Looking out the window of a room that doesn't feel like it's my home
I'm like a wallflower
when I look down at you in the blue swimming pool
Everyone here is so loud
Like the color red
I'll be quiet
for now
and stay in my head

Maryrose Wood is the author of
Sex Kittens and Horn Dawgs Fall in Love (so urbanely funny),
the hot-off-the-presses WHY I LET MY HAIR GROW OUT (so insanely funny),
as well as next year's
My Life: the Musical (a great companion read to Dramarama, out March 08).

By nineteen, Maryrose was on Broadway in Merrily We Roll Along by Stephen Sondheim, and then she was a lyricist and 3-time winner of the Richard Rodgers musical theater fellowship, and THEN she started writing funny books for teenagers.
So of course, she's the perfect person to take the Dramarama Musical Theater Interview.

(I saw that Frank Langella Dracula, too, Ms. Wood – and it was very steamy. With sets by Edward Gorey!)

1. You were in a play in high school, weren't you? Tell me all about it.

Oh, so many. Everything from The Fantasticks to Funny Girl to Twelve Angry Men, except we called it Twelve Angry People because it was mostly girls.

But my most memorable role was Margo Channing in the musical Applause, which is based on the fabulous old movie All About Eve. I played the starring Bette Davis role. It was the spring musical during my junior year of high school, and until the day I graduated all my friends called me Margrose.

2. Give me song lyric that makes you laugh. Preferably from a show, but I'll cut you some slack if whatever you quote is funny.

Every single joke in this classic song by Irving Berlin is funny, but as a great lyricist he saves the best for last. Here's the ending of "You Can't Get a Man With a Gun," from Annie Get Your Gun. It's sung by legendary sharp shooter Annie Oakley, who finds that she's less successful in love than in target practice.

A man's love is mighty,
He'll even buy a nightie
For a gal who he thinks is fun.
But they don't buy pajamas
For pistol-packin' mamas,
Oh, a man may be hot,
But he's not,
When he's shot,
No, you can't get a man with a gun!"

3. If you've seen a show on Broadway, what was your first one? Whom did you go with, who was the star, what did you think of it?

I saw Frank Langella in Dracula when I was in 10th grade, on a school trip. It was, to the day, the dawn of my own consciousness of my libido.

4. What's your showbiz fantasy?

My original showbiz fantasy already came true. When I was a teenager I dreamed that I would be in a Broadway musical written by Stephen Sondheim, and by the time I was 19 years old I was.

My current showbiz fantasy would be to wake up one morning and enjoy an excellent cup of coffee sitting in my garden at home, while reading a rave review in the New York Times of a Broadway musical that I had written, that was based on a book I had also written. And then have a nap.

5. Which Broadway diva are you, deep inside? And why? Ethel Merman, Carol Burnett, Nell Carter, Kristin Chenoweth, Bernadette Peters, Julie Andrews, Bebe Neuwirth, Audra McDonald, Carol Channing, Mary Martin, Barbra Streisand? Or someone else?

I am somewhat Angela Lansbury, because she is so funny and sly and one-of-a-kind. And I am also somewhat Bernadette Peters, because we are exactly the same height and both kind of buxom and bubbly and we used to study with the same singing teacher, and I even got mistaken for her once in a restaurant in the West Village, which is a silly story too long to tell here.

But mostly I am Ethel Merman, because she always, always looked like she was having a good time.

6. Write me a nice little song lyric for the book you're promoting right now. Please.

For WHY I LET MY HAIR GROW OUT:
"The Ballad of Morgan (also known as the half-goddess Morganne)"

My folks send me to Ireland to cure me of my woes,
Soon I meet a hunky lad with freckles on his nose.
And then by chance I find a road where faery magic grows,
And back in time to Long Ago I go, I go
Back in time to Long Ago I go!

In Long Ago they tell me I'm a demi-goddess true,
Breaking foul enchantments is the job for me to do.
I meet an ancient warrior-lad with eyes of twinkling blue,
On magical adventures I must go, and so,
On magical adventures I must go!

The rest you'll have to read if you would know what it's about.
My face is on the cover with my lips all in a pout.
The title of the book is Why I Let My Hair Grow Out,
You'll find it at a bookstore if you go, so go!
You'll find it at a bookstore if you go!

The Kirkus review for Dramarama, which comes out May 1.

"Jealousies swirl, talent shines and insecurities bloom amid the intense competition, reflected in Lockhart's zippy prose. The author deftly handles highly varied characterizations and vividly portrays the intense, sparkling and thorny aspects of the theater world. … Anyone with the acting bug will grab this and devour it in one bite. Exhilarating." -- Kirkus reviews