Today, I'm so thrilled to be hosting Harlequin TEEN! I've had the chance to read some of their upcoming releases and I have to say, that they are fantastic! These aren't your mothers romance novels! These are some fabulous novels, by some very talented writers. I'm looking forward to checking out more!

If you missed any stops on the tour be sure to check them out (hopefully I'm not missing any):

• Starting an Imprint at The Book Reader
• Interview with Editor Natashya Wilson at Dear Author
• What Kind of Book Becomes a Harlequin Teen? at YA Book Nerd
  

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Who Is Writing for Harlequin TEEN?

Welcome to the latest stop on the Harlequin TEEN blog tour! Many thanks to The Story Siren for hosting us. Today we’d like to introduce you to the heart and soul of the new imprint—our authors! For this post, we thought we’d let them do the “talking.” So who exactly is writing for this new imprint? Here’s your chance to get to know some of the rising stars of the 2009-2010 Harlequin TEEN lineup a little bit better…

Rachel Vincent, author of My Soul to Lose (FREE e-book!) My Soul to Take (August 2009) My Soul to Save (January 2010) and My Soul to Keep (June 2010)

Home base: I recently moved to northern Louisiana.
Favorite things to do besides writing: I play Rock Band with my husband, and I'm currently hooked on several HBO shows. I watch them on DVD or DVR so my work schedule isn't interrupted by a TV addiction. ;-)
Favorite music to write to: Oh, this varies depending on what kind of scene I'm writing at the time. But it's usually something either dark and eerie or dark and loud. ;-)
What do you love about your characters? I love that Kaylee (my main character) isn't incredibly strong in a physical sense, but she's very smart, and courageous, and sooo emotionally strong for those around her. She's someone I admire, and would love to meet, if she were real. I also love that several of my secondary characters each have their own agendas. They do genuinely care about Kaylee, but she's not the center of their world, and sometimes her goals come into direct conflict with theirs.
What would people be surprised to know about you? I'm not very girly. I have no fashion sense at all, and I don't carry a purse unless I'm at a conference, when I find that I routinely need things that won't fit into my pockets.
Any Web links you’d like to share? I really spend too much time online! I can be found at:
Blogspot
Twitter
Livejournal
Facebook
MySpace
and my discussion group: The Pride

Anything else? I'm so excited for the Harlequin Teen launch, and for my debut young adult novel, and so thrilled for the chance to show it off to the world!

Gena Showalter, author of Intertwined (September 2009) and Unraveled (September 2010)

Home base: Oklahoma, where the weather changes faster than you can blink (said with love). Favorite things to do besides writing: Read and watch movies. To my husband’s consternation, I often try to do both at the same time.
Favorite music to write to: My answer changes all the time, but right now I am loving Skillet.
Favorite food to write to: Coffee. I know, I know. That’s a drink, not a food. But it’s my lifeblood.
Recent favorite YA books: House of Night by P. C. and Kristin Cast. The series rocks on every level!
What inspired your HQ Teen book? One day I saw a (sexy) teen boy in my mind. (Yes, I’m a cougar.) He was talking to himself and everyone assumed he was mental. Only he and I knew he was actually talking to the souls trapped inside him. That’s when Intertwined was born.
What would people be surprised to know about you? I had no idea how to answer this, so I polled my three dearest friends (Jill Monroe, P. C. Cast and Kresley Cole). The consensus was: Readers would be surprised to know how shy I really am. Also, that I was a cheerleader, my toes are attractive to snipes, and I’m deathly afraid of being eaten by fish!
Any Web links you’d like to share? Author Talk TV, Where I’m not just an author, I’m an award-winning interviewer! Kind of.

Julie Kagawa, author of The Iron King (February 2010) and The Iron Daughter (August 2010)

Home base: I was born in California, and now live in Louisville, KY.
Favorite things to do besides writing: Read (obviously!), play video games, watch anime, martial arts.
Favorite music to write to? I usually have a playlist running in the background. Some of my favorite artists are Within Temptation, Breaking Benjamin, and Cascada. I also like anime music.
Favorite food to write to? Is Mountain Dew a food?
Recent favorite YA books: Perfect Chemistry, Poison Study, My Soul to Take
What do you love about your HQ Teen characters? I love Meghan’s stubborn determination, Puck’s snarkiness, and Ash’s cold stoicism. The three of them together made for some interesting times. Meghan turned out to be very similar to me at her age, a loner and an outcast at school, with only one real friend. Puck is your typical prankster who can also give your enemy a pig’s nose if they piss him off, and Ash is the quiet, dangerous bad boy with a sword. There is also a tell-it-like-it-is cat named Grimalkin who was probably my favorite character to write about!
What would people be surprised to know about you? I was a professional dog trainer before I became a full-time writer. I also trained my cat to sit, lie down, roll over, and wave. (Only when he feels like it, though. And there must be chicken involved.)
Any Web links you’d like to share? The Tenners, a group of very cool 2010 YA debut authors. My personal blog, though sometimes the characters from my book will hijack my computer and make an appearance. (I take no responsibility for anything they say.) I’m also on Twitter if you care to tweet me. My tag is jkagawa, and I’d love to hear from you!

Maria V. Snyder, author of Inside Out (April 2010)

Home base: Pennsylvania
Favorite things to do besides writing: Play volleyball, read, and photography
Favorite food to write to: Salty snacks!
Recent favorite YA books: My Soul to Take and Intertwined ; Uglies and The Lightning Thief
What inspired your HQ Teen book? A dream. I dreamed the entire novel, including characters, the world, and the ending. I've never done it before and haven't done it since.
What do you love about the characters? I love the very no nonsense way Trella looks at her world. She doesn't sugar coat it, but she hasn't truly cut herself off from the rest of the world--not yet. And I love seeing her deal with what she learns. I can tell you she manages to surprise herself a number of times during the story!
Any Web links you’d like to share? Myspace blog & Goodreads page.

Allison van Diepen, author of The Oracle of Dating (May 2010) and an Oracle sequel (November 2010)

Hometown: Canada’s capital – Ottawa, Ontario
Favorite things to do besides writing: I love going out to eat, reading all sorts of fiction, watching reality TV, looking up random things on wiki, watching videos on YouTube, and hanging out with family and friends.
Favorite food to write to: Fruit and smoothies – anything else gets too messy!
Favorite music to write to: For The Oracle of Dating, I listened to a lot of upbeat pop and dance music. The song “See You Again” by Miley Cyrus captured the mood I was looking for, and I listened to it way too much. :)
What inspired your HQ Teen book? From the time I was thirteen, my older sister’s friends called me “The Oracle of Dating” because I gave such bang-on dating advice. I still think the “He’s not that into you” concept belongs to me! So it made sense that I’d write about a teen who, like me, saw relationship patterns, and was able to identify different types of guys, like the players, the sweethearts, and the rebounders. Many of the incidents in The Oracle of Dating and its sequel are based on my own crazy dating experiences. What do you love about the characters? Kayla’s friends in The Oracle of Dating have traits of some of my high school friends. I think we can all find ourselves in those characters, even if we’ve got qualities from more than one of them. And there’s a Kayla in all of us – she finds it easier to give others advice than to take her own, especially when it comes to her crush on Jared Stewart...

Douglas Rees, author of Majix: Notes from a Serious Teen Witch (July 2010)

Home base: I live, and have lived for the last twenty years or so, at the south end of San Francisco Bay. We've moved about every 2 years. The place I like best so far is Santa Clara, but we haven't lived there for years.
Any occupation besides writing? I work as a young adult librarian, which I find extremely gratifying. Probably it helps my writing a bit, since I hear Authentic Teen Voices several days a week, and the kids can help me with technology questions when I have them. (That little thing in your hand is really a phone? Then how come it takes pictures?) But the great thing I get from them is hope, which young people, no matter how cynical they may be, carry with them like a sort of healthful plague. Or something.
What inspired your HQ Teen book? About ten years ago, an editor friend loaned me a new book he had edited and considered to be amusing. I found it cute, but trite, and thought, "I'll show you what funny looks like." So I wrote it, and showed him, and he didn't think much of it. Ten years and nine rewrites later, Harlequin TEEN has seen merit in it. Which just proves what a high-end imprint Harlequin TEEN is.
What do you love about the characters? I like Kestrel's feistiness, Jose's artistic sensibility and shyness, Aunt Ariel's loving wisdom.
What would people be surprised to know about you? I once owned three donkeys.

And there you have it, in their own words! And now is your chance to say hello and tell us a little something about you—comment and you may win a copy of My Soul to Take or Intertwined, or a Harlequin TEEN T-shirt! Let us know...what did you learn about our authors that surprised you? What should we know about you, our future readers? Thanks for joining us at The Story Siren, and we hope to see you at the next stop on the tour, Harlequin’s Paranormal Romance Blog, on August 7!

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