Mary G. Thompson's Blog

Today I'm so happy to let my very first teen fantasy, Flicker and Mist, fly free in the world! I've wanted to write about invisibility for many years, and I scratched out idea after idea until finally, Myra and her world leapt into my head as if they had always been there. Whenever anyone asks what superpower I would have, invisibility is always at the top of my list. What fun and dastardly things would you be able to do if no one could see you? As soon as I started thinking about that, I realized that if some people really could become invisible, others would fear them. And what if you didn���t want to do dastardly things with your ability, but you just wanted to be free to exist? What if there was more to being invisible than just the things you could do?

Myra���s story is about one girl learning to find her own way, forging her own path when others want to define her life for her. Myra is an athlete. She���s ambitious and strong and also a human who wants to love and be loved and live without fear. Myra���s world, like our own, isn���t easy or fair, but it���s magical and full of love and life. I hope you enjoy spending some time there.

Today���s the day! My very first teen contemporay novel is out in the world!��

Last week at the Teen Author Reading Night at the Jefferson Market Library in New York, moderator David Levithan asked the panel what part of our books were most autobiographical, and this got me thinking. The truth is, even though I���ve never been kidnapped, Amy Chelsea Stacie Dee is probably the most autobiographical book I���ve ever written.��

The book takes place in the fictional town of Grey Wood, Oregon, which is very much like my home town of Cottage Grove. Amy���s family comes from the same culture as my family. And Amy is a lot like me. This book was incredibly hard to write at times because I was so fully in Amy���s head that I was feeling everything she was feeling. I started with the question, If I was in this��situation, what would I do? What would I feel? Who would I care about? How would I be able to survive?

Amy gets off the bus in the first scene having suffered a terrible trauma and dealing with a horrific secret. She carries the weight of six long years lived one day at a time. Now she faces reuniting with the family she was stolen from. How will she deal with seeing her Mom again? How will she be able to live with herself knowing that others have suffered and are still suffering? How will she process all her memories and be able to move forward? I asked all these questions while putting myself inside Amy���s head. I did read books about real kidnappings, but the main source material for��Amy���s personality and feelings is me. As I told the audience at the panel, I don���t know if I would have been as selfless as Amy. I���m fortunate to have never been in a situation as a kid where I had to look out for others. But this book is how I imagine I would feel and act if I had to face those things.��

I���m extremely excited to finally be able to reveal the cover for my first teen contemporary novel, Amy Chelsea Stacie Dee, coming October 11, 2016! A million thank yous to Once Upon a Twilight for doing the offical reveal!��

Here is the official book description:

A bittersweet homecoming holds dark secrets in this heart-wrenching story of loss, love, and survival for readers of Room��

When sixteen-year-old Amy returns home, she can't tell her family what���s happened to her. She can���t tell them where she���s been since she and her best friend, her cousin Dee, were kidnapped six years ago���who stole them from their families or what���s become of Dee. She has to stay silent because she's afraid of what might happen next, and she���s desperate to protect her secrets at any cost.
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Amy tries to readjust to life at ���home,��� but nothing she does feels right. She���s a stranger in her own family, and the guilt that she���s the one who returned is insurmountable. Amy soon realizes that keeping secrets won���t change what's happened, and they may end up hurting those she loves the most. She has to go back in order to move forward, risking everything along the way. Amy Chelsea Stacie Dee is a riveting, affecting story of loss and hope. ���� �� �� �� �� ����

I���m so excited to finally be able to reveal the cover of my very first TEEN fantasy novel, Flicker and Mist!��Once again, the folks at Clarion Books did a wonderful job and created this beautiful, haunting cover. I love how it showcases the main character���a girl with the ability to become invisible.

AND here is the brand new, updated cover copy:

In Myra's world, some people can flicker���become invisible���at will. The ability to flicker is a burden, not a gift. Flickerkin are viewed with suspicion by the ruling Plats: An invisible person might be a spy, a traitor, an assassin. Flickerkin discovered in New Heart City, the Plat capital, can be put to death. Myra, who is part Flickerkin, has never dared to use her inherited power.

������������������������But when mysterious happenings begin to occur around New Heart City���disturbances that appear to be caused by invisible people���the Plats��� fear and persecution of Flickerkin intensify. Myra sees her comfortable life eroding, her family split apart, and her budding romance on shaky ground. Violence between Plat and Flickerkin is inevitable, and Myra, with her dual identity and divided loyalties, is caught in the middle.��

Hello friends, family, readers and other humans! I'm excited to unveil my new and improved website today. But more importantly, I have big news about my next two books!

First up will be my very first teen contemporary! Amy Chelsea Stacie Dee will be released by G. P. Putnam's Sons/Penguin Random House in October 2016. Amy Chelsea Stacie Dee is about a girl who is kidnapped along with her cousin, but six years later, she comes back alone. What happened to her, where is her cousin, and why can't she tell anyone how she escaped? I'm extremely excited about this book, and you can see the Publisher's Weekly announcement here!

Shortly thereafter will come my very first teen fantasy! Flicker and Mist, coming January 2017 from Clarion/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, is about a girl who can become invisible in a world where her Ability is illegal. Myra wants to live a safe life among the elite, but when the authorities begin testing for the Ability, she'll have to face up to who she really is. There is an all new fantasy world, two sexy boys, invisibility (of course), and even sports! I can't wait to share this one with you!

Hello friends, relatives, and book lovers! I’m so excited that my new book Evil Fairies Love Hair will be out in the world tomorrow, Tuesday, August 5, 2014. Did you ever want to learn all about how to grow magical creatures and use the fantastic power of hair? Now’s your chance!

From the back flap:

What if you could get your fondest wish? You could be gorgeous, brilliant, a star athlete, or a great singer, or you could put a hex on your worst enemy. And all you have to do is raise a flock of two-inch-tall fairies. Easy, right?

Wrong.

Ali learns this the hard way when her flock starter fairies get to work. Raising them means feeding them, and what they eat is hair. Lots and lots of human hair.

Where to get the hair is Ali’s first challenge. What about the beauty salon? Easy, right? . . .

Before long, Ali’s friends, classmates, teachers, sister, and parents are entangled with the evil fairies, who have their own grandiose and sinister agenda. It’s up to Ali to overcome these magical troublemakers and set things right.

Now for the release week events! First of all, if you are in New York, please come to the Evil Fairies Love Hair release party!

When: Tuesday August 5, 2014, 6:00-8:00 pm.
Where: Books of Wonder, 18 W 18th St., New York, NY
Why: There will be wine, snacks, and even gummy bears! Also, readers’ theater and silliness!

Next, please come to this month’s Teen Author Reading Night!

When: Wednesday, August 6, 2014, 6:00-7:30 pm.
Where: New York Public Library, Jefferson Market Branch, corner of 10th St. and 6th Ave.
Why: It’s not just me! You’ll be able to hear these other amazing authors: Patty Blount, E. Lockhart, Elisa Ludwig, Dianna Renn, Lindsay Ribar, and Amy Spalding!

Finally, I’ll be virtually appearing all over the interwebs in the next couple weeks! Come visit these sites on the official Evil Fairies Love Hair blog tour!

Wednesday 8-6-14: The Enchanted Inkpot
Monday 8-11-14: Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers
Tuesday 8-12-14: The Book Monsters
Wednesday 8-13-14: The Children’s Book Review
Thursday 8-14-14: Cracking the Cover
Friday 8-15-14: Read Now, Sleep Later
Saturday 8-16-14: Beauty and the Bookshelf
Monday 8-18-14: Word Spelunking
Tuesday 8-19-14: Flashlight Reader
Wednesday 8-20-14: The Compulsive Reader
Thursday 8-21-14: The Haunting of Orchid Forsythia
Friday 8-22-14: Small Review
Monday 8-25-14: The Hiding Spot

Thanks for reading, and I hope to see you at the release party or in the virtual world!

Have you ever wondered what’s so great about children’s fantasy? Have you ever asked, Why bother writing or reading about stuff that isn’t real? Have you ever had some strange imagination-less person ask you one of these questions? L. Frank Baum gave us the answer in his introduction to the 1903 edition of The Magical Monarch of Mo. No better words were ever said.

“This book has been written for children. I have no shame in acknowledging that I, who wrote it, am also a child; for since I can remember my eyes have always grown big at tales of the marvelous, and my heart is still accustomed to go pit-a-pat when I read of impossible adventures. It is the nature of children to scorn realities, which crowd into their lives all too quickly with advancing years. Childhood is the time for fables, for dreams, for joy.

“These stories are not true; they could not be true and be so marvelous. No one is expected to believe them; they were meant to excite laughter and to gladden the heart.

“Perhaps some of these big, grown-up people will poke fun at us—at you for reading these nonsense tales of the Magical Monarch, and at me for writing them. Never mind. Many of the big folk are still children—even as you and I. We can not measure a child by a standard of size or age. The big folk who are children will be our comrades; the others we need not consider at all, for they are self-exiled from our domain.”

L. Frank Baum. June 1903.

Today I got a chance to do one of my favorite author activities—a school visit! Today was the best because as part of the Teen Author Festival, I was paired with four other awesome authors. All of our books were very different from each other, and it was a great to have such a cool brew. The most awesome part, of course, was the kids of MS HS 223, The Laboratory School of Finance and Technology, in Bronx, NY. They were a fantastic audience, and I enjoyed speaking with folks about everything from how the imagination works to what it’s like being in the Navy. There were some great writers in the group, too, and I can’t wait to see what they come up with!

I’d like to thank our host school, Literacy Coach Heather Burns, and my fellow authors Caela Carter, Brendan Kiely, Leanna Renee Hieber, and Coe Booth. It’s always an honor to be on a panel with any of these great folks.

The Teen Author Festival continues this week with a ton of fascinating readings and panels. Check out the events here!

What book could bring me out of my lunatic-busy-too-overwhelmed-to-blog hole and compel me to write something? That would be The Drowned Forest by Kristopher Reisz (Flux 2014). I became interested in the book because of its creepy supernatural description, but I was a little unsure if I would like it because I had read that there was a lot of religion in the book. It’s no secret that I’m not religious, and I’ve found other books with religious characters to be frustrating, to say the least. I often have trouble understanding these characters’ motivations. Why do they believe in their particular brand of the supernatural? Why don’t they question more? Why do they accept some parts of their religion and not others? Because I have these questions, I usually find myself jumping out of the story when a character expresses too much religious fervor.

The genius of The Drowned Forest is that it didn’t bring up these questions for me. Once I was plunked down in Jane’s head on the first page, I simply accepted her worldview. I think this happened because Reisz did such a good job with Jane’s voice that I was immediately drawn in, and there was no time to wonder if Jane’s viewpoint made any sense. In Jane’s mind, God was real and had the capability to intervene in our daily lives, and so I accepted it, just like I later accepted that the spirit of Jane’s dead friend, Holly, was still around and causing trouble. In Reisz’s world, magic and God were intertwined—God was the source of the spirit world and the answer to its problems. I loved the way this played out in the story, as Jane’s religion was integrated with the supernatural aspect that so often goes unconnected from any larger force. It really does make sense that if there is one supernatural entity, such as a ghost, that there are others, such as God.

Another wonderful thing about the character of Jane is that although she maintains her fervent belief in God, she is open to the possibility that she was wrong about people. What seems at first like a rigid belief system actually is a framework for her understanding of the world within which she can grow and change. Jane’s relationships with the nonreligious characters in the book are well drawn and lead her to the personal understanding she needs to help her friend, Holly.

Not only did The Drowned Forest portray a religious character that I found myself fully understanding, but it also presented a spirit story in a way that was so much more than the typical evil-ghost conceit. Throughout the book, Jane’s motivation is always to help Holly. Even though one might fear the ghost, one never forgets the person she used to be. I highly recommend this beautifully written book.

This Saturday I have the honor of being on a panel at Books of Wonder entitled “Fantastic Middle Grade Reads” with three fabulous authors! Here are the great books you’ll get to hear about in addition to my own Escape from the Pipe Men!

Lost in Babylon by Peter Lerangis

Will in Scarlet by Matthew Cody

Zombie Baseball Beatdown by Paolo Bagicalupi

I don’t know about the other authors, but you can bet that when I do my reading, there will be voices. Well, one voice for sure. Because aliens don’t talk like normal people. If they did, the universe would be kind of a boring an unhumorous place. Never fear! With not only aliens but also zombies, magic, and legend, this event is sure to be full of adventure, humor, and fantasy.

Saturday, October 26, 2013, from 1:00–3:00 at Books of Wonder, 18 W 18th St. in NYC. I hope to see you all there!