I’m very excited that YA author, Marianne Mancusi, is here with us today! I know she’s very busy with the launch of her new book, GAMER GIRL, which is a book I intend to buy for my niece for Christmas. That’s one of the reasons I asked her to join us today…giving books to kids & teens seems like a really great way to promote reading! For our writers, nothing is hotter right now than YA, so getting her take on the craft is a rare treat. I am so thrilled she accepted our invitation to hang out with us in the jungle!
Marianne is also generous and is offering a copy of GAMER GIRL to anyone who posts today…so writers, readers…please post!
Welcome, Marianne!
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One of the great things about writing Young Adult fiction is the chance you get to relive your own high school experiences, fictionalize them, and sometimes change the outcome. It’s like free therapy in a way.
And that’s why, as a rule, I don’t write those Gossip Girl’esque novels you see all over the bookstores these days. I just wasn’t that girl in high school and I don’t feel I could accurately write about the posh private school life that these books all seem to portray. And while the Manolo Blahnik wearing, self-proclaimed mean girls did exist in my public high school, I certainly didn’t hang in their circle.
In fact, after transferring into the Salem, New Hampshire school district in seventh grade, I wasn’t really in any circle at all. Well, except my own personal circle of hell, that was. Having led a sheltered grade school life at a small Christian school, I was ill prepared for the realities of a public school environment. I hadn’t been exposed to much pop culture and my clothes were anything but fashionable. All the other kids had been friends since kindergarten and weren’t exactly looking to widen their social circles by inviting the badly dressed, clueless transfer student into their midst.
And so I wandered through seventh and eighth grade, friendless and alone and severely bullied by the other kids. I was the shy, awkward, weird girl and they made sure I knew it. There was one day—writing about it still makes me a bit sick to my stomach—when I stood up in science class to do my report on dog nutrition. I loved dogs and had no idea when I chose my topic that I’d be walking into a landmine of bad jokes. When I started speaking, I heard, too late, the snickers from the other students and realized once again I’d set myself up for ridicule.
I went home that day, crying my eyes out, telling my parents that I didn’t have a single friend at school. Unfortunately Mom and Dad had no idea how to console an eighth grade outcast such as myself. My father was a football player when he was in high school. My mother part of homecoming court. In my mind, they could never understand what I was going through. No one could. I had to suffer through it all alone.
And that brings me back to my writing today. Instead of writing about the cheerleaders, I choose to write about the outcasts. The Goths, the freaks, the bullied artists. I drop my characters in high schools like the one I suffered through myself—then empower them to change their destinies in a way I never knew how.
They say in writing you should show don’t tell and I believe this is true in more ways than one. By telling these types of stories, I’m showing teens how to embrace their own unique gifts and not be ashamed of who they are. Just like my characters, they have the power–not to only survive, but thrive in high school.
Because I’ve been there. I’ve hurt just like them. But I came out the other side. Became successful, found wonderful friends and true love. And they can too, if only they allow themselves to believe it’s possible.
By all reports, Julie Leto was a sweet child once, somewhat shy, preferring to play quietly in her room making up stories. However, being raised with three brothers in a loud, primarily Italian household did have its influences and Julie discovered her inner tough girl. That’s probably why most of her heroines kick serious butt. Writing sassy heroines has worked out, as she’s sold over forty books to four publishers featuring strong, confident women. Julie lives in Florida with her daughter, a spoiled dachshund, a haughty lynx-point Siamese and a wide range of relatives all within driving distance.
Destiny
Dirty Little Secrets
Once Upon A Valentine
Through The Night
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Marianne, I feel like you and I could be soul sisters as I was the school freak myself. Unlike you, I was in the same school system my entire life but I was always different because I danced and the kids never let me live it down, trying to get me to dance for them in class whenever the teacher left the room. It was a miserable existence and I went home every day to cry myself. Now, as a mother of two girls, I am on the other side of the spectrum, watching as one is in a group of great kids and really enjoying the experience and the other, who suffers from bipolar disorder and Asperger’s Syndrome, is the freaky weird kid that gets bullied and is totally miserable. It is heart-wrenching to be on either side of it.
Ironically, the one who is being bullied has discovered your books and is absolutely in love with them. She especially likes the coven series (I read the first book and liked it, but she hasn’t given up the next one for me to read yet) but she is really wanting Gamer Girl. So guess what’s happening to that book if I win it? And if I don’t, I’m going out to get it for her.
Thank you so much for sharing your story with us. Now I know why my daughter connected so strongly to you. She found a soul sister, too.
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Your books sound amazing…I think I’ll have to go pick some of them up!
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Hey Margay,
My heart ached to read your post and think of what your poor daughter is going through right now. Kids can be so cruel, especially to those who they deem “different.” And it must be nearly unbearable, as a mom, to watch it happen and not be able to do anything about it.
I am so glad she likes the Blood Coven series and I really hope Gamer Girl speaks to her as well. Because it’s for people like her that I write these books to begin with and I really hope, as an author, to make a difference. (I know it sounds cheesy, but in this case it’s true!)
Marianne
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Well, you should know that you do make a difference – and that she eagerly awaits all of your new releases. I haven’t seen her this crazy about an author or book series in awhile – apart from manga, that is. You must be doing something right if you can appeal to someone who prefers graphics to the written word currently. And as a mother, I applaud all authors who can reach out to kids that way and promote literacy. So I have to offer you a huge THANK YOU for that!
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Hi Marianne!
Great post. I perfer to read about the outcasts rather then the popular girl books myself. I’ve read News Blues and Razorgirl by you and I adored both books. I would love to read your new book and I’m glad I popped in here because I hadn’t heard of this one.
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Hi Marianne! So glad to see you here today. Both my 14-year-old daughter and I have read and devoured your coven series. After the first one, we fought over who got to read the next one first. My daughter won but I bugged her everyday, pushing her to finish it so I could have it. Your YA books appeal to me on many levels. I was the quiet girl in school. I wasn’t picked on much, just left alone. I had different opinions about things but dislike confrontation so I was always afraid to voice them. Looking back now, I wish I had had the self-confidence I see in your characters. My daughter is kind of a loner not in the popular crowd. But I am so proud of her because she doesn’t let that stop her from being who she is. She puts herself out there and the only person’s opinion that matters to her is her own. That’s another thing I love about your YA books; they show her you can be your own person and be strong because of it. Of course, one of the big reasons I love your YA books is because they are just so easy to read. The words just flow and I’m turning pages and finished with the book before I realize it. I have been on the lookout for Gamer Girl too for my daughter for Christmas. Looks like a trip to the mall may be in order.
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Hi Marianne~
Your post made me remember the joys of high school. I am so sorry that you had to endure that but obviously these horrible experiences have helped to make you the amazing person you are today.
I have read your Boys That Bite and have Stake That and Girls that Growl in my tbr pile. Boys that Bite was excellent and something that I would definitely encourage my daughter to read.
Have a great weekend.
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Wow, Marianne! I wish you’d been around when I was in school. In my generation (yes, I’m older than dirt), Nancy Drew and the Dana Girls were about the only YA/relationship books out there. I ended up writing my own stories where the weird kids got to be cool. I also wish that the YA in my family 1) read more and 2) wasn’t in college and planning her wedding.
Thanks for dropping by the Jungle today! And thanks for giving the “other” kids their chance to shine fictionally.
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Hi Marianne! As much as I love watching the Gossip Girl show, I couldn’t really get into the book. I love reading YA books and will have to pick yours up the next time I’m in the bookstore. I was the girl that went between a couple of groups, so I didn’t really fit in great in high school. I was very lucky to fit in much better in college.
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:mickeyWelcome, Marianne…I love reading YA fiction for some reason. Maybe, I am trying to work through my own life. I should have done that, though (I have moved on…lol…and wouldn’t go back to hs if they paid me.
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Thanks guys. Speaking of getting kids to read, one of the greatest honors I received in my YA career was to be selected for the “Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers” by the Young Adult Library Assocation (YALSA). And I get kids writing to me all the time saying they never read books — but ended up reading Boys that Bite five times in a row. :) This makes me feel like I’m doing something right.
And I agree, Silver, there were very few YA books when I grew up that were beyond the Sweet Valley High series. And I just couldn’t relate to those perfect, popular twins. Now I love reading YA as much as writing it!
For those of you reading YA – what are some of your recent favorites? I’m currently reading an ARC of Rampant, a unicorn urban fantasy by Diana Peterfreund, that comes out next year. It’s amazing!!!!
Marianne
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Marianne, welcome to the jungle! I can thoroughly relate to your HS experience. Not as a transfer, but on other levels. Honestly, kids are so mean. I have two teenage daughters. Enough said. I hope they all look at you now and … well, you know!
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Marianne thanks so much for being here today!! I moved around a lot as a kid but, having 5 siblings, usually made out okay.
It was harder when we moved from Florida to Maryland a couple of years ago. I have 3 girls, the middle one was just going into 10th grade. She’d been with the same group of kids in FL since kingergarten, so I felt awful!
Fortunately, she fell right in with the theater kids and has done just fine. But it was definitely a worry!
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Congratulations on award – what an honor. And to get reluctant readers to write to you – that is quite a feat!
Like I said, I read Boys That Bite and loved it; still waiting for my daughter to fork over Stake That for me to read. Read the whole Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer and loved that, too. Also liked Wicked Lovely; it was different, a little darker than the other YAs I read. Always looking for good recommendations, though.
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I have a niece who wouldenjoy your reads, I’ll let her know about them!
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Hi Marianne and welcome to the Jungle! You definitely have friends here!
Bless your heart. What an awful experience you had. I can relate to it. Although the bullying was a little more subtle for me and directed in an interesting way.
I always felt like a square peg in a round hole. Where do I fit in? Fortunately, I did have a friend who I had known since kindergarten. We were both geeks so it was okay. I can remember this teacher asking me in front of the entire class: “What aren’t you popular?” One of my more humiliating moments.
Now I have a daughter who is special needs. She just turned 18 and we had to watch as she was shunned by neighborhood kids and school kids. We consoled ourselves with the knowledge that it was their severe lack of good parenting that caused them to act that way.
Then of course, there were the adults too who would give us “the look” when Lilly would start to talk then they would turn their backs. She looks completely normal until she starts to talk then you realize she is special needs. We still have problems with people but Lilly has learned to blow them off and move on. My husband and I are the ones who can’t seem to move on when that happens. We tend to give the offender a hard glare, one that makes them scuttle away seeking the black hole they crawled out of.
Thankfully, Lilly has friends now–all special needs too so they have bonded in the way only people with disabilities can. It’s fun and interesting to watch them interact and communicate as if they are all on the same wave length. Also at her school they had a record number of kids volunteer to help the kids who are in the special ed program. They are also really protective of the kids and won’t allow anyone to dis them. It’s a comforting thing for a parent of a child with disabilities to know, like a warm blanket wrapped around you.
I think I will pick up your book and Lilly and I will read it together.
Thanks for stopping by the Jungle and sharing your story with us.
Cher :jiveturkey:
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I haven’t read any of your books but they sound awesome. I was one who hated school and I begged my mom every year to home school me all the way to my senior year. I went to a small school and I never really seemed to click with any of the kids. It didn’t help that I was very shy and had a difficult time talking to people that I didn’t know very well. And I also was really bad about getting dizzy all of the sudden and doctors couldn’t figure out why this was happenning. I was really self conscious about it and it embarrassed me when it happened at school or school events. And of course, there were kids who made remarks to me. (I was finally diagnosed at 21 with basilar artery migraines.) The majority of the time, reading a book sounded like so much more fun than socializing. But everything seemed to improve when I went to college. I slowly got over being so shy and started talking to people in my classes and had a great group of friends. I was still having problems getting dizzy and other problems that came with this different type of migraines but I also loved college. And my friends didn’t seem to mind when I got sick and would help me out. All of our majors were in psychology which probably helped. We were used to studying about people who had all types of “problems” and this might have made my friends a little more understanding.
Overall, I loved college and would gladly go back and repeat that experience but you couldn’t pay me enough money to go back to high school.
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You are so lucky to already have Rampant! I can’t wait to read it! I’m reading Julie’s Phantom’s Touch right now, but up next is Vampire Kisses by Ellen Schreiber. My oldest niece let me borrow it since she still has all of my Morganville Vampire books.
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Marianne, thanks again for coming today. GREAT blog.
I was one of those kids who fit in pretty easily, actually. I loved high school in some ways, hated it in others…adored college.
My daughter, however, is definitely a square peg and while it makes life and school really difficult, I’m glad I’m aware enough to just keep encouraging her to be who she is, while also trying to help her navigate tough social situations. She’s been bullied a few times, but my fear is not so much that she’ll feel badly about herself, but that she’ll lose her temper and punch someone in the face. :yikes: Not that I’d blame her. I’ve seen some of the mean girls in action and it blows my mind.
And Cher, you’re right…it is about the parenting in a lot of cases. My daughter’s best friend’s brother has Down’s Syndrome and hangs out at our house all the time. My daughter doesn’t think anything of it and she gets furious if anyone ever treats him differently. I think living next door to them has been a real blessing.
And all the time when we’re struggling in school (not with grades, but with social stuff) I think, Wait until college. She’ll LOVE college.
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Hi, Marianne! I’m so happy to be introduced to you. I haven’t read any of your books, but will now! I love reading YA. Some of my recent favorites are Melissa Marr’s Wicked Lovely and Ink Exchange, Catherine Gilbert Murdock’s Dairy Queen and The Off Season, and Meg Cabot’s Pants on Fire. And speaking of college, I just finished all three of Diana’s Secret Society books and adored them! Best of luck with Gamer Girl! Thanks for being here today.
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Julie – your comment made me think back to my son in middle school. In 6th grade we moved him into private catholic school. Where the kids would be better behaved, the environment safer, etc. Bullsh*cough*.
I knew he struggled terribly in the beginning but I didn’t realize how bad it really was – with the bullying, etc. By the 8th grade he was doing great and I could see the tremendous amount of respect the other kids paid him.
I thought it was because when his Tae Kwon Do team did a demonstration at the school, and the kids realized he was a black belt (and they watched him break a board in half) that was what made the difference. Um..no…it was all the fighting he’d done in 7th grade that I knew nothing about. He got tired of the bullying and just started fighting back with all them. *sigh*
Part of me feels really bad that I didn’t realize how bad it was for him. But the pacifist (the biggest part of me) is glad that I didn’t know, because I never would have approved of his method (I still don’t) but it was obviously what worked out best for him.
Gosh it’s hard being in school – and it’s so frustrating being a parent!!
Marianne – thanks for writing these books that the kids obviously love and that they need so much!!! And thanks for being here with us today.
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Alannah, I’m so NOT a pacifist…so it makes it REALLY hard for me to act like a responsible parent and tell her to use her words. Generally, she does…but when words fail and the teachers don’t intervene (or in many cases, don’t know what’s going on) then I fear she’ll resort to physical persuasion. It has happened in the neighborhood where she’s learned from experience that bullies back down when you crack them on the head with a stick. (It wasn’t that bad…but it was close.)
She’s a live and let live kind of kid. She really cannot fathom why anyone would get into anyone else’s business. She cannot comprehend why the kids say things to her like, “You can’t do it THAT way, you have to do it THIS way” and go running to the teacher (little tattletales) if she opts to do something a different way. What’s it to them, she asks me. Well, what am I supposed to say? They SHOULDN’T be in her business, especially since she’s not doing anything to her. (Most of this is academic and comes, I think, from the highly competitive nature of kids these days. Which, again, is the fault of the parents, IMO.)
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I love, love, love, love reading (and writing) YA. The books are so smart these days and there is something for everyone.
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Alannah and Julie – I fear I’m not a pacifist. I can’t abide bullying in any form. We told the DD that she couldn’t start a physical fight but she was certainly allowed to finish it once someone hit her first. She did. A boy on the bus beaned her with a large three-ring binder for the third time. She busted him in the nose. I got called into the principal’s office and the school counselor was there. They were all over me for believing she had the right to defend herself.
“I refuse to raise my daughter to be a victim,” I explained. That rocked them. I cited current (this was ten years ago) stats on emotional and physical abuse of teen girls by boyfriends and stated my belief that their enforcement of “You can’t fight back” only reinforced the victimology. Both women sat there, stunned looks on their faces. I never had another problem and neither did the DD. She stood up for her rights and the rights of those weaker than herself. She was always the kid who picked the special needs, the shy, and the unpopular kids for her team or project. She still does and I’m so proud of her!
Marianne, thank you for connecting the those square pegs out there. Carly’s right. I’d love to be a fly on the wall of your class reunion because…uhm…wow. Indeed,
!!!
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Hi Marianne: I really enjoy your books. My teen loves your Boys that Bite Series.
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I love that story, Silver!
Thanks everyone! It’s been great to be here today.
And actually I did go to my ten year high school reunion. Got a ton of attention from the former football players — who actually dubbed me “A sleeper.” Hah. Maybe it just takes some of us a little longer to grow into our skins. Or maybe it just takes maturity for others to notice what’s been in front of them all along.
In any case, that’s what Facebook is for. ;-)
Mari
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I’ve commented on this book elsewhere, but it sounds awesome. Being both a Goth and a gamer myself (albeit adult), it hits at least two of my “ooh” buttons.
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Marianne, I haven’t read your titles yet, but am thrilled that you’re writing stuff like this! I like knowing that when my daughter’s a little older, she’ll have some great reading for her that I can enjoy too! Congrats on your success!
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I know exactly what you went through in junior high.
Your book sounds very good!
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There were joys in High School? Oh, please, tell me when. Only the kids who were popular could say that. My recent reunion proved to me that everything is still status quo- and that the bullies then haven’t changed or grown up much.
Other than Nancy Drew, the Dana Girls and Hardy Boys, there were very few YA books that related to me. I tended to read Sci-fi, starting with Anne McCaffrey and Asimov when I was still young. I was also the one who sat in the back of the class room in HS and read Harlequin Romances.
My daughter was never part of the “in” crowd either, but unike me, she didn’t care and stood up for herself. To this day she is who she is- which is fine with me. Now she is heading to CA for film school and I know she will be fine. (I won’t)
When she was growing up, I discovered Tamora Pierce’s books, which all feature strong female characters and most of them were outcasts at one time or another. We still read her books when a new one comes out.
Even though she is currently working her way through JR Ward’s books, and almost 24, I would bet she would enjoy your books. I will have to get Gamer for her.
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I am sorry to say that I haven’t seen these but I know my daughter would love them. She just moved to a new junior high and it isn’t going so well. All her life we kept her in the same school district but this move was necessary. I will have to check these out. Now…how to get her to read them on her own without Mom advising her, eh?