My current column is up at Bookslut with some mystery/adventure books that I thought were pretty cool. It was leaning more towards straight mystery but I put Catherine Fisher's Darkhenge in as well because I've had the book for awhile and LOVED it and it's a mystery with a fantasy bend to it. Technically it would have done better with a group of fantasy titles (or fantasy and sci fi) but I really wanted to get the word out on it. But I never really thought about how complicated it can be to stagger book reviews around a themed column.

It's really a pain in the ass. (But I mean that in a "I love my column please don't take it away from me!" kind of way.)

For June I have a column loosely called "surviving high school" and it has three books with boy narrators and three with girls, which never happens and I'm thrilled about that. For July I'm looking at nonfiction books and reading several that are blowing me away including artist Neil Waldman's autobiography (with gorgeous reproductions of his paintings) Out of the Shadows: An Artist's Journey. This is one of those books that can so easily fall through the cracks but for any artist or reader looking for a fascinating history of personal creativity, this is the one to grab. In August I'm thinking Sci Fi and Fantasy because I will not be able to resist Catherine Fisher's new book Corbenic, for long and also because I got the most impressive looking fantasy title I've seen in ages today - Monster Blood Tattoo Book 1: Foundling. It seems to be in the His Dark Materials vein although I'm not sure if the overall story is as epic as that one. It does look fabulous though (Jenny D. I'm thinking of you here!). And then after August there must be a family dramas column, a historical fiction column and a war fiction column. I'm thinking there needs to be something fun and happy for the holiday season but I'll worry about that later.

See - it's not so easy!

I just finished a very different anthology for YAs - Twice Told: Original Stories Inspired by Original Art. Scott Hunt made some black and white drawings and each one was sent to two YA authors who had to come up with stories based solely on the existence of the photos. They were wildly different (and I can't stress that enough) and while the stories are all good on their own, the concept is a great lesson in short story writing. I'll be reviewing it in more detail in Eclectica this summer in an article on anthologies.

And right now I'm reading Tim O'Brien's If I Die in a Combat Zone and getting blown away. This whole memoir business is really interesting isn't it? I'm trying to figure out what makes one good and what makes one bad (other than the obvious lying parts). It's hard to say but the reading is certainly very good as I try to figure it all out.