Before you check out the interviews, be sure to take a look at the latest Guys Lit Wire Book Fair for Boys update where we share a recent email from a group of teens who contributed to our project. There have been a lot of amazing comments and emails in the past week as book lovers have shared what books mean to them, and why they want to share their love of books with others - particularly teens who likely have never been taught how important books can be. In every way I am realizing that what we have discovered here is an idea born at the perfect time - it is something people want to do and have been waiting to know how they could do it. Please link to the Book Fair and/or buy a book if you haven't yet. We will update the site as soon as the boys start receiving books so everyone can know how much their generosity is appreciated.

And now your Summer Blog Blast Tour Schedule for Day #4!

Siobhan Vivian at Miss Erin: "I do tend to focus on friendship more because, to me anyway, my friendships have always been more passionate and intense than any relationship I had with a boy. I’ve fallen in love with soooo many guys in my lifetime (ha!) but finding a true friendship seems much more rare."

Alma Alexander at Finding Wonderland: "If the author cannot respect me, the reader, then I didn't see why I should reciprocate."

Laurel Snyder at Shaken & Stirred: "I love other places too, Iowa especially, but the south has a lot of what the midwest has, only warmer. People making up their own kinds of lives. Cheap rent and beautiful landscapes and loud laughs and whiskey and falling-down barns are conducive to art, maybe. To me, the south feels very DIY, sloppy and forgiving, and I could go on forever about this. "

Cindy Pon at The Ya Ya Yas: "When i first began, i got really mired in historical details. Then i finally realized i was NOT writing a historical, i was writing a fantasy. I really needed to free myself. The snake demon is something that is very
popular in chinese ghost stories. but the corpse monster is something i created in my own mind. (I won’t say much more—due to spoilers. =)

Thalia Chaltas at Little Willow: "Names of characters are fascinating to me. And they always come first for me, before I know exactly who the characters are and what's going on. When I am writing, a name just comes and it sticks. I very rarely change a name once I start it. Anke's name was simply there as I started writing."

[Post title from Thalia Chaltas.]