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Lucy Powrie

UKYA

UKYA FORTNIGHT: Interview with Natasha Ngan, Author of The Elites

 
 
I’m so excited to have Natasha Ngan on the blog today. The Elites has got to be one of my most antipicated reads of 2013 and I’ve already pre-ordered it. You can read an extract of it here and should definitely pre-order it like I’ve done!
 
 
1. Hi Natasha! Welcome to Queen of Contemporary! Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your novel, The Elites?

Thanks for having me Lucy! I’m a half-Chinese, half-English girl who grew up living between Malaysia and England. I studied Geography at university as I’m fascinated by cultures, and so many of my story ideas have come from my course studies. I currently work as a freelance social media consultant in London, a blogger (I run fashion and lifestyle blog Girl in the Lens with my boyfriend), and of course an author! The last is obviously my favourite 😉
The Elites is my debut novel, a standalone YA sci-fi. In a city in the future where no one ever enters, and no one leaves, Silver, a fifteen-year old girl who works as an Elite to guard the city’s leaders, is about to discover just what is outside the city’s walls. And as the dirty truths about her city begin to reveal themselves, she has to search deep within herself for the strength to fight against all she has ever known …

2. Can you name your five favourite UKYA novels?

There are hundreds, but here are the first five that came to my mind – the entire Mortal Engines series by Philip Reeve, The Nation by Terry Pratchett, everything Patrick Ness, Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman, and of course, Harry Potter.

3. In your opinion, how do UKYA novels differ from novels written by foreign authors?

I think that coming from such a small, intensely multicultural and socially diverse country, our books tend to be more diverse, challenging, and sometimes downright weird than those from across the pond. There’s often a quirky streak running through our YA novels that I don’t see in US YA, for example (see Philip Reeve and Patrick Ness, and even Harry Potter), and our characters can be very conflicted, very flawed.

4. How do you think your Britishness comes across in your writing? 

The city in which The Elites is set in, Neo-Babel, is intensely multicultural, and I think that although my own background as being mixed-race and living between two countries definitely contributed to that, a large part of my interest in how cultures interact in a small space comes from living in the UK. There’s also a touch of whimsy and weirdness to some of the settings and characters in The Elites, which I like to think is influenced by my Britishness! We are a funny bunch.

5. If you could have written any book by another UKYA author, which book would it be?

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness is just astounding, so I’d have to go for that. How so much emotion and power can be packed into so few words, I’ll never know.

6. Sum up UKYA in five words.

Intelligent, quirky, diverse, challenging, underappreciated.

7. What’s next for you?

I’m writing my second book for Hot Key which will come out next Autumn (given that they like it! Eek!), The Memory Keepers. It’s about a future where memories are traded as commodities. One boy – Seven – and his unlikely companion discover a memory about him that reveals a past he never knew he had, and together, they try and figure out what it all means before Seven is discovered by those who want his secret for themselves.
I’m really excited about The Memory Keepers. It’s set in a futuristic London, which will be a wonderful setting to share with readers, especially those unfamiliar with the UK. I’m also working on another novel, the start of a YA urban fantasy series, and that takes place in Cambridge, so there’s loads of exciting UK settings in my novels to come 🙂
Quick Fire Round:

Favourite non-UKYA novel? Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

Favourite TV show? I’m a sucker for US prime time – Glee, Grey’s Anatomy, Homeland etc.

Favourite comfort food? Popcorn. No, chocolate. No, crisps. How about all three at once?

Favourite place to write? Anywhere that’s quiet and comfy. But if I could afford to, I’d get a pretty little villa in Ibiza or southern France as an office.

 

Natasha Ngan was born in St Albans, Hertfordshire, and spent her childhood in both the UK and Malaysia, where the Chinese side of her family is from. She also spent it living in two other worlds – reality, and her imagination. As an only child, books were her best friends, and though she now has real, physical, human friends, books are still every bit as important to her.

Natasha has always (only) wanted to be an author. THE ELITES is her first novel, and she regularly blogs about her experiences of being a debut author. Outside of writing YA fiction, Natasha works as a freelance social media consultant and runs a fashion and photography blog with her boyfriend Callum (www.girlinthelens.com). Follow Natasha at: http://natashangan.com or on Twitter: @girlinthelens

UKYA

UKYA FORTNIGHT: Guest Post by Keris Stainton, Author of Jessie Hearts NYC

I’m really pleased to be welcoming Keris Stainton to the blog today. Keris is a fab UKYA author and so I feel very honoured to have her here today.
We are incredibly lucky to have so many wonderful UKYA authors, but you wouldn’t necessarily know it. For some reason – glamour? budgets? – American authors seem to be promoted much more than UK authors and it’s such a shame. I’m not saying there aren’t completely brilliant US YA books out there – there absolutely are and some of my favourite books are by American authors – but there are so many UKYA books that just seem to be… overlooked.

Following a Twitter discussion about the above (these days, most things in my life happen as a result of Twitter discussions) – and the wonderful UKYA author Keren David finding a GoodReads featuring someone looking for UK-set YA novels and being recommended Swallows & Amazons and Harry Potter –

I set up UKYA, a blog to celebrate and catalogue (sort of) UKYA books.

I wanted to have a central hub where people could go to find UKYA books by theme and location. Keren and Susie Day, another wonderful UKYA author, help me set it up and now I mix posting details of UKYA books new and old (in no particular order, just those I happen to come across) and guest posts from authors and bloggers.

I’d actually really like to expand the guest posts and have the site be more active – the UKYA community is so vibrant and diverse, I’d love the site to reflect that – so if anyone reading this post would like to write something for us, we’d love to have you!


 
 

Keris Stainton is the author of three UKYA novels – Della Says OMG!, Jessie Hearts NYC, Emma Hearts LA – with (she hopes) more coming soon. She’s addicted to tea, American TV, and Twitter.

UKYA

UKYA FORTNIGHT: Welcome to the UKYA Fortnight!

Welcome to the UKYA Fortnight!
 
I’ve been planning this fortnight for months now and have two weeks of UKYA filled awesomeness.
The first week (15th-21st) is going to be focused on authors and I have lots of interviews and guest posts scheduled with some of the best UKYA authors out there. I’m so excited to finally be able to share them with you.
The second week (22nd-28th) is filled with amazing blogger stuff and I have bookshelf tours, book showcases and more to show you. I have some absolutely brilliant bloggers guest posting so I can’t wait to show you their posts.
Towards the end of the first week, I will be hosting a UKYA Twitter chat! I’ve never hosted one before but I’ve joined in with a few chats before and they’ve been a lot of fun. I have lots of games planned and lots of other questions, so I’d love to see a lot of you there!
It will be on Friday 19th July at 6:30 PM British Summer Time. For more information, you can tweet me @LucyTheReader.
So, why have I chosen to host this UKYA Fortnight?
Supporting the UKYA community is very important to me. Many of our British authors are overshadowed by foreign authors, mainly those from the US. This doesn’t mean that those books are any better than UK fiction and so I think UKYA should get its own fair share in the market.
I don’t post a lot about UKYA books here on the blog because the majority of the books that I read are US YA. Of the 92 books I’ve read so far this year at the time of writing this post, only 33 of these books have been UKYA; only one third. That is a dramatic improvement from last year when I probably didn’t read over 15 UKYA books. I’d like to start improving this and I’d like to start getting more people reading UKYA because it does get pushed out quite a lot.

I’ll be posting a lot about how you can support the UKYA community next week, so keep an eye out for all of the posts.

Enjoy UKYA Fortnight!

Book Haul

Letterbox Love (17)

 
Letterbox Love is a UK based feature where book bloggers showcase the books that they received that week, be they e-books, paperbacks, hardbacks or any other format. It is hosted by Lynsey from Narratively Speaking.
 
I wasn’t expecting to have a very big haul this week but it seems that whenever I say that the complete opposite happens.
To Review:
 
 
Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas- It’s in my hands! It’s in my hands! Yay! Yay! Yay! I’m a huge fan of Throne of Glass and receiving this this week was just such a brilliant moment. Thank you, Bloomsbury!
The Killing Woods by Lucy Christopher- I had no idea I was getting this and I was so happy when I found it on my doorstep. I can’t wait to read it because I loved Stolen so much. Thank you, Chicken House!Library:

Level 2 by Lenore Applehans- This is a book that I’m going to be reading over the summer for my book club that is run by the library. I love my library so much because they’ve had loads of new books recently and so I’m on my limit at the moment. Must read fast!
The Quietness by Alison Rattle- I’ve been wanting to read this for a while now and am so pleased that this is another book club read. I may have to live in my library from now on…I’m a huge fan of historical fiction so this sounds right up my street.
Born Wicked by Jessica Spotswood- Another book club read! This has been recommended to me a few times over the past couple of weeks so I’m looking forward to seeing what everyone is talking about.
The Bunker Diary by Kevin Brooks- I’ve heard really great things about this and so have decided to finally read it myself. It sounds really intriguing!
E-books:
 
The Avery Shaw Experiment by Kelly Oram- I was in the mood for something a bit like this and so decided to buy this for my Kindle. I’m so pleased I did because I really enjoyed it.
Bittersweet by Cathy Cassidy- This really let me down and I was so disappointed. 🙁
Uncategorized

WordPress VS Blogger: The Big Debate

After a few book blogs were deleted by Blogger the other day, it’s really kicked the Blogger blogosphere into thinking about switching to WordPress.
I’m certainly in the process of deciding whether to change myself at the moment and so I thought I would write a quick post about some of the things that are going through my head at the moment.
I always thought that Blogger was safe and I’ve always felt comfort in using it but lately it’s been getting on my nerves a little bit. 
Last night, I had to wait for over an hour to write a blog post because of the error messages that kept popping up every time I logged in to my dashboard. By the time that it was actually working again, I wasn’t in the mood to write anything and this annoys me so much: my blog posts are one of the only things that I feel have to be written and scheduled ahead of time; normally I’m very disorganised!
The feeling was so irritating and I put so much work into my posts that I don’t feel like writing them at half nine at night when I’m tired and want to throw things at Blogger. It just won’t work!
One of the things that worries me the most about switching to WordPress is that I’ll lose everything I’ve done over the past year. Switching would be something that I did completely on my own and so it just worries me that I won’t be able to handle it all.
Another thing that worries me is that WordPress won’t reflect the feel of my blog. Is that a weird thing to say? Probably. When I think of my blog, I think of it in a certain way and I’m afraid that if I move to WordPress this will change. I’m not very good with change! 
If I were to change, I would want to use WordPress.org which allows you to own the site yourself. I’d like to think that I owned my blog now, but sadly this is not the case. With Blogger, your whole blog is owned by the site and they can take it down without any notice. This is what happened to the book bloggers and it makes me sick to think that the same thing could happen to me. All that work that we put in! 


I’d love to know what you think on this matter. Have you changed? Are you thinking of it? 
Book Review

REVIEW: The Moon and More by Sarah Dessen

Author: Sarah Dessen
Publisher: Puffin (Penguin)
Acquired: Bought

Summary from Goodreads:

Emaline is spending her last summer before college in her home beach town of Colby. Everything is familiar – from working for her bossy sister Margo at the family rental company to Emaline’s gorgeous (and regularly shirtless) childhood sweetheart, Luke.

But when an out-of-town brash New York filmmaker, and her young assistant Theo, come to stay at one of the beach houses, everything Emaline thought she knew about herself changes.

But can her heart let go of a life she’s loved for so long?



Prior to picking this up, I’d only read one Sarah Dessen book- The Truth About Forever. I’d really enjoyed it and so, after hearing good things about her latest, The Moon and More, I decided to buy it. I’m so glad I did because The Moon and More was a perfect summer read.
The Moon and More is set in the fictional town of Colby and, boy, do I wish it was real! Dessen got the setting just right and I much preferred it to some books that are set in real places.
It’s Emaline’s last summer before she goes off to college, leaving her hometown, Colby, and her family behind. Her life has always had the same familiarities until now. When Ivy, a film maker from New York, and  her assistant, Theo, arrive in Colby everything changes. Suddenly, the summer starts getting busier and busier and Emaline has to face old problems being brought back up.
I really liked Emaline as the main protagonist. The book flowed really well written in her perspective and Dessen had created a consist character. She was the sort of girl that you could easily become friends with and I’d happily read another book about her.
I wasn’t a huge fan of Theo, right from the start. His mannerisms really bugged me and I couldn’t see why Emaline liked him. He was just so annoying!
However, I did like Luke and found him so adorable. I craved the scenes he was in and his interaction with Emaline was just so sweet.
The relationships between the characters was something I really loved. Emaline was so close to her family and it was nice to see a happy family unit, rather than one that has a lot of issues like we see in many YA books.
I completely adored The Moon and More and will definitely be raiding my library for more Sarah Dessen books now.
Uncategorized

Rainbow Spines Book Tag

I was tagged by the absolutely amazing Amber from The Mile Long Bookshelf in this tag and so, here it is! 
All you need to do is create a book rainbow with the spines on your books. It’s really fun to do.
Red- Stealing Phoenix by Joss Stirling
I was going to choose a more well-known book but I really like this spine and the trilogy so far is so fab.

Orange- Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
I think this is a bit of an obvious choice. I’m not a huge fan of these covers and I much prefer the black ones but I suppose it fits the purpose of this tag!

Yellow- Summer’s Dream by Cathy Cassidy
I am a huge fan of these hardback covers and I could add about fifty of each to my shelves. Seriously!

Green- The Hit by Melvin Burgess
I’ve seen quite a few different covers of this book but my spine is green and shiny! I really like shiny books…

Blue- City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare
I couldn’t not do this tag without adding a book from one of my favourite series. I love the covers of The Mortal Instruments and The Infernal Devices so much and I particularly love the colour of this one.

Purple- Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan
I love John Green’s Penguin covers so much and the spine on this is a really lovely colour.

Purple/Pink- Wings by Aprilynne Pike 
Another sparkly cover! I love this series so much and the covers are to die for.

Pink- Kiss, Date, Love, Hate by Luisa Plaja 
I love this book so much and love the little pixel people on the cover. It’s such a brilliant read!

Multi-Coloured- Rockoholic by C.J. Skuse
This is one of my favourite covers and, at the time of my reading it, so many people picked it up and asked me about it.

Black- Heist Society by Ally Carter
Does this count as black? I think so. I really like this spine!

Gold- Jessie Hearts NYC by Keris Stainton
Another shiny cover! There’s a theme here, isn’t there?

White- Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas
I don’t have many white covers but I really like this one.


I’m going to tag: Sunny from A Super Sunny Spot and Jessica from Booked Up! 

Book Review

REVIEW: Attachments by Rainbow Rowell

Author: Rainbow Rowell
Published By: Orion
Acquired: Bought 

Summary from Goodreads

Beth Fremont and Jennifer Scribner-Snyder know that somebody is monitoring their work e-mail. (Everybody in the newsroom knows. It’s company policy.) But they can’t quite bring themselves to take it seriously. They go on sending each other endless and endlessly hilarious e-mails, discussing every aspect of their personal lives.

Meanwhile, Lincoln O’Neill can’t believe this is his job now- reading other people’s e-mail. When he applied to be “internet security officer,” he pictured himself building firewalls and crushing hackers- not writing up a report every time a sports reporter forwards a dirty joke.

When Lincoln comes across Beth’s and Jennifer’s messages, he knows he should turn them in. But he can’t help being entertained-and captivated-by their stories.

By the time Lincoln realizes he’s falling for Beth, it’s way too late to introduce himself.

What would he say . . . ?



Imagine this: there I am, ill, sat on the sofa and the something drops through my letterbox. It’s a package and when I open it there are books inside. Magical. One of these books is Attachments and I put down my re-read of City of Bones especially to start it. Yes, I was that desperate to start this book.
Attachments is about a guy called Lincoln whose job it is to check the emails sent by employees of The Courier, a newspaper house where Beth Fremont and Jennifer Scribner-Snyder work. Beth and Jennifer both have a habit of sending each other emails throughout the day and the majority of them get flagged up.

Written in both third person and through email correspondence, Attachments was a book that I added straight to my favourites shelf after reading it. I loved the way it was written, I loved the characters; I loved everything about it.

I was immediately drawn into the book and loved Beth and Jennifer straight away. Their emails really added a humorous tone to the book and I’d be happy to read a book entirely about their emails.

I think the novel thing about this book (excuse the pun) is that it’s set in a time when people didn’t have smart phones to hand and WiFi. I was also pleased because one of the emails in the book was sent on the day I was born and so that made me very happy.

As I’ve already read Eleanor & Park and Fangirl, this was the last of Rowell’s books that I had to read so I don’t know how I’m going to wait until Spring 2014 for her next, Landlines.