After reading in several blogs about the Scott Westerfield interview in Locus - and the fact that this issue was focused on YA fiction, I picked up a copy for the first time in ages while in the big city last week. I had forgotten just how packed with information Locus is, or how well it conveys the news and notes for the Sci Fi/Fantasy literary world. I also found info on several new or upcoming books that I'm quite interested in.

First up is Child of a Rainless Year by Jane Lindskold. It's a return to the house Megan grew up in, questions about her past and lots of fantasical overtones. There's also a killer blurb by Charles de Lint which pretty much nails it for me. I've been hearing about Silver Bough by Lisa Tuttle for a little while and the idea of a town that gets cut off from the rest of the world and then finds itself in the grips of the unexplained and unexpected (but in a good way, not in "slasher with a chainsaw" kind of way) sounds quite appealing. I've also seen good reviews for The Mysteries, her last book. This is an author I need to read.

Lisa Goldstein reviewed Jo Walton's latest, The Farthing, and this one is somewhere between fantasy and cozy British mystery. It's definitely an alternate history (Britain negotiated a separate peace with Hitler) but after a murder in a weekend country house it seems to slide into a world that fans of Sayers and Christie will appreciate. Goldstein liked the book and I'm intrigued as well.

Locus also has a nice piecec on Holly Black and a ton of short essays by all kinds of YA writers and editors. Lots of good opinions here and for someone writing a YA urban fantasy, lots to think about.

Speakeasy is often hit or miss for me, depending on the overall theme. This month's was okay - lots of opinions on balancing technology in your life - but the winner was a short piece by Julia Alvarez about how she discovered the historical fact that set her to write her latest novel, Saving the World. I love this kind of piece - the chance to look inside a writer's brain and see what sparked an interest that sent them on their writing journey. As I had never heard of the smallpox vaccine that Alvarez wrote about (22 orphan boys carrying vaccine), this was particularly interesting. She also writes a bit about how she researched the piece and the doubts that crept in midway. Very interesting stuff, especially if you're a fan. (I wish it was much longer though).

I.D. has a interview between Chip Kidd and Jonathan Safran Foer. I wish Jonathan had shut up a bit more and asked questions that allowed Kidd to talk - half the words here are eaten up the interviewer and not the interviewee. But there are some shots of his office (a "bookstore colliding with a toy store at 300 miles per hour")

and also some bits about jacket designing. I shamelessly have judged more than one book by its cover so I'm all over anything that can reveal just how you develop one of those iconic, everlasting designs.

Bust has a short interview with Poppy Z. Brite whose new book, Soul Kitchen is due out in July. I'm planning to review it for Voices of NOLA. She has a problem writing about female characters "Writing a male character is like hanging out with a dog. A dog is friendly, it wants to help you. Writing a female character is like hanging out with an iguana; it sits there and gives you a sour look. It stares at you and doesn't do anything. You have to do all the work." After writing a few months ago in her journal that she didn't plan to include Katrina in her books she now says the next one will end with the storm and there will be after, to address the rebuilding of the restaurant community.

Pages is mostly a guilty pleasure - it always looks like it should be full of reviews but it rarely satisfies. I did think it was pretty funny to read in their sidebar of further reading for fans of DaVinci Code that Umberto Ecco's The Name of the Rose and Foucalt's Pendulum should both be considered. Oh yeah - Eco reads just like Dan Brown doesn't he? Can you imagine someone picking up Foucalt and thinking it will be that easy? Poor bastard!

I did find a brief interview with the Hooblers about their book on the writing of Frankenstein. After loving Angelmonster earlier this month, I'm sure I will reach for The Monsters: Mary Shelley & the Curse of Frankenstein as well. I read a couple of the Hoobler's YA Japanese Samurai mysteries last year and was quite impressed. These folks do their homework.

Finally, Booklist always has reviews for a dozen books that interest me. John Dunning has another one out in his Cliff Janeway series - hard to resist. AJ Zerries has written The Lost Van Gogh which has a trail back to Nazi pillaging of Jewish-owned art and reviewer Donna Seaman (who I love!) writes "great action sequences, complicated characters, swanky settings, dramatic betrayals and intriguing art history". This totally has summertime book written all over it. Laurie R. King's latest Kate Martinelli/Sherlock Holmes crossover (kinda) is the one that I think will bring her even more fans (if that's possible) and somewhere in all of this I read that Preston and Child have another book due out, The Book of the Dead. I loved Relic (book and movie) and Cabinet of Curiosities. These guys nail brainy suspense so well - and who cares if it means there's a monster loose in the Museum of Natural History. They are fun to read!!!! This one is back at the museum and involves an ancient Egyptian Curse. I'm all over it.