Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Why I love Janette Rallison

I've blogged before about the benefits of dark themes in YA. I truly believe that dark stuff can teach us something about life and how to survive it intact.

But what if we're not in the mood to learn about darkness, no matter how beneficial? What if we prefer lighter fare? What if we just want to feel good?

Enter Janette Rallison (and others like her). Janette deals with tough issues--don't mistake me here. Her books (her 18th comes out this October) deal with addiction, death, and betrayal--but always with a light-hearted spin. They make me laugh, they make me cry, and they make me feel good about life.

Oh, and they're always romantic. :) That's very important. Especially since Romance, Romance is the topic of Janette's Authors' Advisory Conference Call tomorrow night. She's going to tell us how to create a romantic story line--whether it's the main story or a subplot--and what the important elements of such a story line are.

As a special bonus, Janette has volunteered to give away two of her books as part of her conference call! I'm not going to tell you more right now--details will be discussed on the call. Call in, ask questions, and WIN!

"Which of Janette's fabulous books can I win?" I'm glad you asked.

How to Take the Ex Out of Ex-Boyfriend is about Giovanna, who has a really cool boyfriend Jesse... who agrees to support the mayor's son in his student body president campaign against her twin brother. Of COURSE she has to dump him, right? Ever hear of loyalty? Only, being Jesse's ex-girlfriend isn't as fun as the alternative. But how do you get your boyfriend back in the middle of a down-and-dirty election when you're on opposite sides of the war?

My Fair Godmother is about a normal girl. With normal problems. In the normal world. Who makes a normal wish for a princely prom date. Only she happens to be assigned a very ABnormal godmother-in-training for three of her wish-fulfillment needs. She signs a contract without reading it (gasp!!), ends up as a series of fractured fairy-tale princesses, and dooms the boy she likes to the middle ages until he can figure out how to become a prince. Fer reals. In a plan that involves dragon-slaying. This is the first in an ongoing series about the exploits of Chrysanthemum Everstar, who only scored a "fair" on her fairy godmother test. I've read the first two and eagerly await more.

You want to win them, don't you? Call in tomorrow night, starting with an informal Q&A at 8:45 EDT, to find out how. See the Authors' Advisory site for details.

9 comments:

  1. I SO want to listen in on this. I LOVE Janette's books. I love the upbeat take even among some sad situations. I love the innate nobility of her characters. I recently read a book by Laura Josephsen that reminded me of Janette's books. Even though the characters had to deal with some real hard things, it was still powerful in its upbeatness. If that makes since.

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  2. I haven't ever read this author. Her stories sound very earthy.

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  3. Oh, her books sound like SUCH FUN! I'm definitely going to check Janette's books out. :D

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  4. Fingers crossed that I can listen :)
    Thanks for the heads up!

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  5. Janette was great at the LDStorymakers conference. I need to check out her books.

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  6. Great job hosting the call, Robin.

    -- david j.

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  7. Janette was, is, and will continue to be amazing. Did you all catch that she's going to be writing YA Urban Fantasy? Frabjous day!!! I'm so excited!!

    David-thanks! Not hard to be good at something that's so fun!

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  8. I love Janette Rallison and *gasp* she's going to write a YA urban Fantasy? Wahoo! I'm so happy to hear this!

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    1. It's now been out for months, under the name CJ Hill: SLAYERS. As in dragon slayers. You definitely have to read it.

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