The competition is now closed. Congrats Lija, you were picked by the nifty random number generator, and win copies of The Popularity Rules and The Liberation of Alice Love! Email me with your info, and I’ll get those out to you soon.

…And it’s great!

Closer Magazine give it 4 STARS!

“Lawyer Alice gets a big shock when she finds out <SPOILER>  has emptied her accounts and run up debts in her name. So what does Alice do? Trail the thief across the world with the help of a hunky fraud investigator, of course!

Refreshing, fun and sexy, this is a perfect beach read.”

Alice Love hits stores tomorrow, so to celebrate, I’m giving away a fab prize pack: a shiny copy of the new book, PLUS a copy of my debut, The Popularity Rules, too!

How can you win? Well, in the book, Alice Love discovers that wearing a particular red silk cocktail dress makes her feel like an entirely new woman…. capable of all kinds of escapades she’d never normally dream of.

So, my question is this: what’s the one outfit you love to wear that makes you feel bold, brave, and just a little bit reckless?

Comment below, telling us about it, and you could win!

Competition closes on Monday, 12th July, so get commenting!

(Winner picked at random, UK entrants only, I’m afraid – you US folks will get your chance with the American edition next year).

Drumroll please…

Author of SOPHOMORE SWITCH and BOYS, BEARS & A SERIOUS PAIR OF HIKING BOOTS Abby McDonald’s GETTING OVER GARRETT DELANEY, about a head-strong, dramatic teen who decides to kick her unrequited crush for good – with the help of her quirky co-workers, the boy least likely, and her very own summer twelve-step program, to Liz Bicknell at Candlewick, in a two-book deal, a good deal, by Rosemary Stimolaand Stimola Literary Studio.

I’m so excited to share this news, and thrilled to be working with the fab team at Candlewick again!

Wait a minute, I thought your next book for teens was THE ANTI-PROM.

It is! THE ANTI-PROM is coming out Spring of 2011, and is already done and dusted – almost. The copy-edits are glaring at me from my desk right now. This is for the books after that.

What are the books about?

They’re still under wraps for now, mainly because I haven’t actually written them, so anything – even titles! – could change. But, I can tell you that GARRETT DELANEY will be another fun, sweet summer novel about epic unrequited crushes, self-discovery, romance, and ice-cream. So, the usual!

When will these books be published?

GARRETT DELANEY will be published in hardcover in Spring 2012, and then another title in 2013. 2013! Gulp, I can’t even think what I’ll be doing in six months, let alone when I’m… *quick calculations*… 28. I’ll be positively ancient by then.

What about a Sophomore Switch sequel? I really want to know what happens next!

Me too Still no plans for a sequel, so keep spreading the word, passing the book to your friends, and maybe that will change…

I was going to write a post about what I got up to on vacation, but it turned out, my intrepid girl explorer did it for me at ThisRecording – with added literary musings.

The Brit and I got sloshed on desert cocktails. We wore our prettiest girl outfits and flirted shamelessly with the bartenders. Fortified with cucumber and rum, we ran outside and jumped into the pool, wearing our clothes and shoes and ruining out hair.

Ah, Palm Springs…

In other news, thanks so much for all the feedback on ‘Boys, Bears & a Serious Pair of Hiking Boots’! I love that you love it, and for those who asked – it’ll be published in the UK in Feb, 2011 (super-cute cover reveal coming soon).

Big things and changes are afoot in my life right now, hence the blogging has been even thinner on the ground than usual. I made my TV debut last month as a guest on the BBC Review Show, chatting about chick-flicks and SATC:2 – scary but fun! (The filming, that is, not the film, which was sadly way more scary than fun).  See me here, trying not to look directly at the cameras:

I ‘m also now gearing up for the publication of my next adult novel, The Liberation of Alice Love (hence another color scheme here on the site), and preparing to pack up and move at the end of summer, this time all the way to Los Angeles. But, I’ll do my best to check back in here, answer your emails, and bring you some behind-the-scenes book goodies and giveaways.

Have a great summer!

*** CLOSED! STAY TUNED FOR WINNER ***

To celebrate the release of Boys, Bears & a Serious Pair of hiking boots, I’m giving away a fabulous signed gift pack. You’ll get a shiny hard-cover copy of Boys, Bears… PLUS a cute paperback of Sophomore Switch too!

To enter, just comment below, telling me about the best – or worst – outdoors experience you ever had. Hiking nightmare? Blissful camping trip? Tell me, and you could win this amazing prize pack!

Increase your entries by:

+ 1 following me on twitter

+2 retweeting my giveaway tweet

+ 3 blogging about the competition

Good luck!

(Competition closes Tuesday, April 13th; winner will be picked at random)

For me, locations aren’t so much a backdrop in my novels, but more a main character in themselves. Whether it’s a city, neighbourhood, park or party, often, I’ll think up settings I want to use first, and then craft scenes around them. Sometimes I find myself going off in new (geographic) directions just because I can picture the scene so vividly in my mind, outline be damned. But with BOYS, BEARS & A SERIOUS PAIR OF HIKING BOOTS, I went one step further, because the entire novel was dreamed up around location: the glorious Canadian wilderness is the heart of the book.

See, like my heroine, Jenna, I’ve always liked nature – in theory. Parks? Lovely to laze in with a good book. A light stroll on the forest? Fun, as long as we stop for an icy drink. I grew up in the English countryside, and have enjoyed many a road-trip through the woods of Western Massachusetts, but when it comes to actual outdoors adventuring? I’m so not that girl. I mean, I wear contact lenses; I like running water; my idea of physical exertion is walking down the block to get ice-cream.

But when I was living in Montreal in 2008, I took a trip out west to visit family (yes, I am 1/2 Canadian!). I arrived at the airport with a bag of my prettiest summer dresses to find my Uncle Don greeting me with the strange and terrifying words:

“We’re going camping!”

So, camping we went. I chopped wood, wrestled with a tent – and rudimentary showers – and hiked up and, well, skidded down mountains. (In fact, there’s a certain scene in Ch. 23 involving a rather inconvenient thunderstorm that is entirely based on that trip. Except, sadly, my version was minus the cute boy and kissing. And, luckily, minus the SPOILER!) By the end of it all, I knew exactly how Jenna would feel being plunged into such strange and foreign adventures, because I had been through them myself!

And as you can see  from the photos, I fell in love with the vast, terrifying, beautiful, awe-inspiring wilderness of the Rockies – where the snow stays on the mountain tops even in the height of sweltering summer; where catching sight of a moose is a regular occurrence, where the trees roll back to the top of every ridge, and crisp, cold lakes are just waiting for you to cannonball into.

I can’t say I’ve been brave enough to try all Jenna’s adventures, (kayaking will wait another day), but most of the book is based on my own experiences, in Canada and elsewhere: from rock-climbing, to bike riding, to skimming rocks amongst the waterlillies with a cute, plaid-wearing boy.

Oh, the things I do for research…

I hope you enjoy reading BOYS & BEARS half as much as I enjoyed writing it!

Yes, that’s a bright new colour scheme you see, to tie in with my next YA book release! ‘Boys, Bears & A Serious Pair of Hiking Boots’ (which has to be the most twitter-unfriendly title ever) will be hitting stores April 13th, and I can’t wait.

A story of summer fun, environmentalism, romance, hilarious kayaking adventures and a grouchy moose, I like to think there’s something for everyone. Want a great escapist vacation read? You’ll love exploring the Canadian wilderness with Jenna, my Green Teen thrown into unfamiliar surroundings. Like your books packed with cute boys? Well, I’ve got not one, not two, but THREE fine plaid-wearing specimens, in Ethan, Grady, and Reeve, the local boys who show Jenna about life in Stillwater – and outdoors adventuring. Plus, there’s friendship to navigate, a wild roommate to tame, and a little something called The Modern Mountain Man’s Survival Guide to help Jenna on her way…

Check out the book page for more information on what Publishers Weekly calls “a fun summer read”, Teens Read Too declares a 5* book that’s “funny, environmentally friendly, and hard to stop reading,” and a lovely goodreads reviewer calls “absolutely the most adorable book ever!”

The talented Megan Crane on the virtues of enthusiasm:

I love romance novels, chick lit books, perfect pop songs, so-called “predictable” stories that still make me teary, just about every romantic comedy ever made, boy bands (particularly old school boy bands with appalling hair), Disney movies (especially the kind featuring un-animated singing and dancing by supernaturally good-looking teenagers), and almost every single show on the CW. I like to dance, for hours, often by myself. I like to scour the internet for mentions of former teen idols who I still love, and feel protective of. And if a band is only loved by a handful of scraggly-looking holier-than-thou hipster types who will abandon them at the first whiff of a record deal, that is probably not the band for me. Until they “sell out,” that is, and have their latest song featured during an emotional moment of Gossip Girl, at which point I will buy their entire catalogue from iTunes.

Enthusiasm is not a dirty word. I promise.

AMEN TO ALL!

(‘Enthusiasm’ is also a wonderful gem of a book by Polly Shulman, and well worth the read!)

To celebrate, I’m giving away a copy to a random commenter. Just leave your comment below, telling me where you’ve linked to this post, and you’ll be entered to win!

Yes, this is a shiny new website I’ve been building here, to prep for all the books I’m pushing your way in 2010. Still working out the bugs, so ignore the temporary place-holders, and let me know if you have any problems!