The Friday Five Inbox Edition

We've had a happy inbox kind of week. Here are a few highlights:

1. Received an email from BFF who said her cousin texted her from her High School Strategic Reading class. One of her classmates was doing a book talk on Liar Society and she was like, "I KNOW THEM!" Student gave it a 9/10 and said it was "really good." Best. News. Ever.

2. A few people have emailed with their reactions to the book since it's been out. It's so cool when readers take the time to do this. Not only do they make us cry (we're a tad sensitive up in here), but they take the week to a whole new level. We know how busy everyone is. We seriously feel honored.

3. Publicist Kay is amazing. So nice and responsive and enthusiastic and, and, and. We love her.

4. We learned this week that a girl who HATES reading flew through The Liar Society. Mission accomplished.

5. No week would be complete without emails of the random variety containing very few words (Interesting. or Have you seen this? or Check it.) and a link. Favorite emails ever. Here's one that the ever amazing Loretta Nyhan sent our way. Fascinating, no?

What went down in your inbox this week?

PS: This week was also an inbox spring cleaning of sorts and we're 110% positive that we've missed interviews or books we were supposed to mail out or other extremely important commitments. If we've dropped the ball in any way, shape or form, PLEASE let us know! It makes us sick to think we've missed something.

PPS: Lisa is going to be in Dayton signing The Liar Society on April 1st with JULIE KAGAWA author of The Iron Queen, JULIA KARR, author of XVI, MARA PURNHAGEN, author of One Hundred Candles, MARIA V. SNYDER, author of Outside In and SARA BENNET WEALER, author of Rival. Click here for details. She's going to be flying solo for the first time (that slacker Laura has a wedding) and would love to see some familiar faces!

The Bookanistas: What Happened to Goodbye

We love The Dessen around these parts. The Regulator ALWAYS has a Dessen novel queued up in her car and we have nothing but respect for the reigning queen of YA. Also her Twitter stream is refreshingly honest and random. The girl loves her Good Morning America and you got to respect that. So you can imagine the excitement in LiLa Land when we got our hands on an ARC of Dessen's upcoming novel, WHAT HAPPENED TO GOODBYE.

Here's what the back cover has to say:

Since her parents' bitter divorce, Mclean and her dad, a restaurant consultant, have been on the move - four towns in two years. Estranged from her mother and her mother's new family, Mclean has followed her dad in leaving the unhappy past behind. And each new place gives her a chance to try out a new persona: from cheerleader to drama diva. But now, for the first time, Mclean discovers a desire to stay in one place and just be herself - whoever that is. Perhaps her neighbor Dave, an academic superstar trying to be just a regular guy, can help her find out. Combining Sarah Dessen's trademark graceful writing, great characters, and compelling storytelling, What Happened to Goodbye is irresistible reading.

Lila's Take:

Every time I sit down to read a Sarah Dessen novel, I learn something. Whether it's the way she fleshes out her characters and makes them come alive--how you meet someone and immediately categorize them but by the end of the book have a completely different viewpoint. Or the way she takes the everyday conflicts that plague all or most of us and adds a special twist to set them apart, a factor that makes every book unique, no matter how common the topic. Either way, I feel like I could either be a better writer after reading her books or am a complete hack.

In WHAT HAPPENED TO GOODBYE, we meet Mclean who moves around with her dad all the time following her parents' nasty divorce and reinvents herself in every town they land. It's hard not to see a little bit of yourself in this character, a little bit of that I have no idea who I am or who I want to be--even at *gasp* 30! And it's hard not to get a little jealous of Mclean's clean slate (and her free time--is it just me, or do you read YA books and yearn to have even a sliver of the freetime you had in high school???). She gets to start over in every town and specifically holds herself at an emotional distance to make the break a bit more clean when her dad and her inevitably leave. But, in this particular town (and if you read Dessen, you'll feel at home--BTW this is another aspect of Dessen that I LOVE--the world she's created that is interwoven in most of her books. I always want to shout HOORAY when I recognize a detail from a past book), Mclean has to do a bit less work fabricating her character. Instead, the real her (or a her she's just starting to get to know) is coming to the surface and all of the sudden instead of manipulating the details like who she's friends with and who she's supposed to be, they're all falling into place naturally. And it's jarring.

This book has all of the Dessen qualities everyone loves so much--the friendship, the love interest, a strong element of family and the conflicts that often come with the territory. WHAT HAPPENED TO GOODBYE would be wonderful for young adults who are dealing with divorce because it reminds us how complicated life has a tendency to get. Another wonderful book by an incredible author.

Check out what the other Bookinistas are up to this week:

Click here to join The Bookanista Book Club at The Reading Room where you can check out all the books we're buzzing about! 

Elana Johnson reveals the cover of The Eleventh Plague

LiLa Roecker wonders What Happened to Goodbye

Christine Fonseca wants to be Like Mandarin

Jamie Harrington falls for Falling Under

Shelli Johannes-Wells visits Dark and Hollow Places

Beth Revis discovers Lost and Found

Carolina Valdez Miller is wild about Wither

Megan Miranda swoons for Anna and the French Kiss

Bethany Wiggins commends Ketura and Lord Death

Shana Silver gushes over What Happened to Goodbye 

Jen Hayley peers into Clarity

Carrie Harris is mesmerized by Memento Nora

Matt Blackstone visits The Ninth Ward

Corrine Jackson jumps for Bumped

Stasia Ward Kehoe spotlights Strings Attached

WTF Wednesday

"Recent Keyword Activity" in StatCounter is like being the fly on a wall in the skeevy bedroom of a 40+ year-old man who still lives with his parents.

We know your secrets 40+ year-old man.

What we don't know is why the following search terms led YOU to US.

1. kate gosselin cameltoe
2. douche in pink shirt
3. perky (this was entered multiple times)
4. tiger pounce
5. camel toe naughty america

PS: Lisa will have her Fug Madness picks in as soon as the synopsis for our WIP is done digesting her brain. Then I get to take a stab at it.

PPS: Join us at The Book Pixie and The Book Scout and don't forget to enter for a chance to win a $100 Amazon gift card. Just think of all the crap books you could buy with that money!

Sister Tiff

Laura: *yawn* Um, your blog post isn't scheduled for tomorrow and I'm getting tired.
Lisa: *makes knife gesture to neck* Yeah, because I'm writing. Remember our rule?
Laura: Well, I can't exactly fill out your Fug Girls bracket myself, now can I?
Lisa: You can't even fill out your bracket, so no, I bet you can't.
Laura: Geez, what's your problem?
Lisa: Oh nothing except for the fact that I've been working all day on our synopsis and Ben has a weird mark on his head.
Laura: Wait, what kind of mark?
Lisa: It's white with red around it. It's hard to explain, okay? But it's a mark. On his head.
Laura: He probably just hit it on the crib or something.
Lisa: Ugh. My life just sucks. Ben has a mark on his head and I'm stuck writing a synopsis AND a blog post.
Laura: I'll do the blog post. Relax.
Lisa: AND responding to all of our emails.
Laura: Oh...yeah, um, since I've gotten my new phone, I've gotten kind of bad at that. I read them. I just don't respond.
Lisa: Thanks. A lot.
Laura: I'm not good at the touch screen, okay? You're the one who pressured me to get rid of the Alias, so technically it's your fault.
Lisa: Everything is my fault. *Googles white and red mark on side of baby's skull*
Laura: Can't wait to read the synopsis!
Lisa: I hate you.

*Wupshaw* *Wupshaw* Madness Style

Hear that? That's the sound of a whip. The sound of me kicking whipping Lisa's ass in the Fug Madness Tourney.

Let me break it down.

Well, I would if I knew how to break it down. I'm not gonna lie, brackets REALLY confuse me. BUT, luckily, Lisa's a whiz at Google Forms and those I can understand. I'll have to get some help from my hubs for the actual completion of the bracket. I'm sure he'll be extra patient when he realizes we're filling in the names of celebrities and betting on books.

Here goes nothing...

I'll be betting with a signed copy of Liar Society, some signed booksmarks and bonuses included.

Final Four Cher Bracket: Drew "Crazy Pants" Barrymore. I mean, is there any doubt?

Final Four Madonna Bracket: Chloe "No Love" Sevigny. Yep.

Final Four Bjork Bracket: Christina "Rode Hard" Aguilera. She's been looking a bit worse for the wear lately. That's not very nice of me to say. But I guess none of this is very nice.

Final Four Charo Bracket: Rhianna "Edgy = Ugly" I don't get it. And I think the bulk of what she wears is fugly, even if it is on stage.

Champion #1: Chloe "No Love" Sevigny.
Champon #2: Christina "Rode Hard" Aguilera.
Winner: Christina "Rode Hard" Aguilera.

Bold choices, I know, but I'm standing by them, even if I don't know how the hell to fill out the brackets.

Even better we're extending the deadline to enter our Fug Madness Contest until this Wednesday, so check out Friday's post for the details and ENTER!

PS: We've taken over The Epic Book Nerd as well as Ya Book Queen blogs today, so be sure to stop on by for a chance to win some pretty cool prizes! See you there!

Fug Madness LiLa Style

So it's a well known fact that one of our most favorite sites to cyberstalk is Go Fug Yourself. Celebs + Bad Fashion + Hilarious Snark = WIN. Anyway, the geniuses behind Go Fug Yourself have come up with the fashionista's answer to March Madness, that's right they pit fashion challenged celebrities against each other  in four Fug Madness brackets "compiled through a very complicated algorithm incorporating approximate level of fame, depth of fug, quantity of fug, and other various intangibles that might include how caffeinated we were at the time."

WIN.

One of our favorite things to do is play along and we thought this year it might be fun to make it interesting. I mean, our husband's bet money with their lame little basketball brackets, why should they get to have all the fun?

So here's how it's going to work:

• Everyone who thinks they can predict the Fug Madness 2011 winner ponies up ONE BOOK, leave a comment in this post with the book you will be betting. Please also note that you'll be required to ship this book to the winner.
• Fill out this form with your predictions for the FINAL FOUR, CHAMPIONSHIP and THE OVERALL WINNER. Here's the bracket that you can download and fill out. 
• You have until Sunday March 20th at 11:59 PM EST to fill out the form.
• The winner of our Fug Madness tournament will receive ALL THE BOOKS. That's right people, winner takes ALL.

Just so you know, we'll be betting with a signed copy of The Liar Society, some signed bookmarks AND a finished copy of Angelfire by Courtney Allison Moulton.

Let us know if you have any questions. And be prepared to get OWNED BY THE SISTERS ROECKER. That's right, trash talk is encouraged in this competition. Bring it.

Bookinistas: Like Mandarin

I knew the moment I read the description of LIKE MANDARIN and saw the beautiful cover that I'd love it. It's just my kind of book. And I'm almost positive it's your kind of book as well. Read on...

Here's what the back cover has to say:

It's hard finding beauty in the badlands of Washokey, Wyoming, but 14-year-old Grace Carpenter knows it's not her mother's pageant obsessions, or the cowboy dances adored by her small-town classmates. True beauty is wild-girl Mandarin Ramey: 17, shameless and utterly carefree. Grace would give anything to be like Mandarin.


When they're united for a project, they form an unlikely, explosive friendship, packed with nights spent skinny-dipping in the canal, liberating the town's animal-head trophies, and searching for someplace magic. Grace plays along when Mandarin suggests they run away together. Blame it on the crazy-making wildwinds plaguing their badlands town.

Because all too soon, Grace discovers Mandarin's unique beauty hides a girl who's troubled, broken, and even dangerous. And no matter how hard Grace fights to keep the magic, no friendship can withstand betrayal.

Lila's Take:

This book is like nothing I've ever read before. It's a coming-of-age, friendship, mother-daughter relationship story all rolled into one beautifully poetic package. From the very first page, Kirsten's words will lift you right up from your seat and transport you over to Wyoming, which she describes with an incredible attention to detail. As barren as I always thought this landscape must be, Kirsten manages to paint the setting in an exotic way, motivating me to do a search on images. She is an expert at setting, so if you're struggling, get ready to be inspired.

And then there is Grace. She's awkward and skinny and ignored and smart and desperate and lonely. And all of the sudden she gets swept up in a relationship with a girl she has always admired from afar. A girl who seems to be everything she is not. Mandarin has a reputation that precedes her and an attitude to go along with it. She wants nothing more than to escape both their town and her life. She wants out in a big way. The girls have this in common. And Grace falls for Mandarin hard. And then has to figure out how to get back up again.

Kirsten's writing is simply gorgeous. She writes passages you will dog-ear and highlight and read again and again. I will read absolutely everything she puts out and am looking forward to seeing how many awards LIKE MANDARIN snaps up. It's just that kind of book.

Check out what the other Bookinistas are up to this week:

Elana Johnson shares her love for Like Mandarin 

Christine Fonseca purrs over Save the Cat

Shelli Johannes-Wells explores Dark and Hollow Places

Carolina Valdez Miller gushes over Will Grayson, Will Grayson

Bethany Wiggins is enchanted by My Fair Godmother

Shanna Silver praises Possum Summer

Carrie Harris falls for Head Games

Rosemary Clement Moore travels Across the Universe

Katie Anderson goes Retro

Corrine Jackson celebrates Where She Went

Stasia Ward Kehoe sings about The Mockingbirds

WTF Wednesday of Random

Is it just me or does Zac Efron look like the kind of dude behind the wheel of a kidnapper van?

Moving on...

We're still talking about all things LIKE MANDARIN this week. Have you bought it yet? Huh? Huh? Good. Anyway, we considered writing up our own post about setting after getting inspired by Kirsten's book. But then we found this. And were defeated.

We couldn't possibly put it any better, so go forth and be enlightened. Kirsten is a genius and her words of setting wisdom can be applied to your writing TODAY. That's the best part!

Happy Wednesday everyone! Continue to leave your #IWantToBLike entries in the comments. We've loved reading them! Also, check out yesterday's post for a chance to win a LIKE MANDARIN swag pack because it's just plain awesome.

PS: The winner of the mandarin lip gloss is Vivien! Congrats--email us your address and we'll put it in the mail.

PPS: We're traveling to Candace's Book Blog and Thing 1 and Thing 2 today for even more random. Enjoy!

Tell The Truth Tuesday: A Lifetime of Mandarins

So, it's LIKE MANDARIN week over here at ze blog and I've been struggling to figure out who my Mandarin is. I mean, Laura had it easy because clearly she lived her life aspiring to be as awesome as me. But I wasn't so lucky. Being the oldest meant that I had to look for my Mandarin outside of the Roecker fam and because I'm (apparently) a lazy couch potato, I looked no further than my TV. I'm not gonna lie, it wasn't always pretty.

My Mandarin circa 1985: Punky Brewster

Ah Punky you were oh so spunky!

Exhibit A: All Hallow's Eve With the Roeckers

In the years 1984 - 1988 I was living and breathing Punky POWER. I loved Punky Brewster with every bone in my 7-year-old
body. Punky taught me that playing in abandoned refrigerators was bad news bears and that tree houses and pig tails were totally rad. But I didn't just like Punky, I wanted to BE Punky.

See Exhibit A. Sure it was Halloween, but let's be honest, I went all Single White Female on Punky's ass. Sadly, I wasn't nearly perky enough to maintain all that Punky Power and my obsession slowly faded.


My Mandarin circa 1994: Angela Chase

No one did angst like Angela Chase. NO ONE.

Exhibit B: It was originally a DIY purple.
My mom had her stylist "tone it down."

The first episode of My So-Called Life changed my life. I had never seen anything on TV that so accurately represented MY LIFE. I loved that show with every fiber of my being and more than anything else I wanted to be Angela Chase. I wanted to be brave enough to ditch my boring friends and hang out with people who were doing cool, edgy stuff that scared the crap out of me. I wanted to sneak out with Rayanne and make out with Jordan Catalano in the boiler room. I wanted Ricky to be my gay bestie so he could help me pick out the perfect flannel shirts and eyeliner. I wanted to BE Angela Chase. And again, I went all Single White Female on her ass. See exhibit B. In retrospect red wasn't exactly my color. 

My Mandarin circa 1999: Carrie Bradshaw

It was one of those long, lazy, hungover Saturdays when my friend Emily and I decided to rent the first Season of Sex in the City. We watched the entire season IN ONE DAY. And thus began my obsession with Carrie Bradshaw. She was a writer living in New York City wearing shoes that cost more than the rent for our crappy college house for an entire semester. I was in Oxford, Ohio living on a steady diet of pizza and beer and traipsing around in shoes that looked like THIS:

The character of Carrie Bradshaw had a profound impact on me. She was a completely independent woman, living in an amazing city with amazing friends and an endless stream of boyfriends. She said what was on her mind and wrote about sex for a trendy newspaper. She was shocking, provocative and engaging and she inspired me. So when I moved to Chicago after I graduated from college I rented a tiny little studio apartment all on my own. Sometimes I was lonely and scared and my life was absolutely nothing like Carrie's, but it was all mine.

My Mandarin circa 2011: My Mother

Me, my thumb and my mom.

OK, this isn't easy for me to admit, but while these fictional women all had a profound impact on my life, no one impacted me quite like The Regulator. I look like her, I talk like her, I REGULATE like her. Guys, I'm turning into my mother and I'm actually kind of proud of that fact.

My mom wasn't like other moms. She worked four days a week. She had a life of her own that included everything from bowling to bunco. She parked us in front of the TV and made angry faces at us when we bothered her when she was on the phone. She yelled at us for eating all the Ho Ho's within hours of her weekly grocery trip and she managed to strike the fear of God into us with four simple words: I'm disappointed in you. She even fielded insane phone calls from us at work that went something like this:

10-year-old Laura: Hi, is Joni Roecker there?
Receptionist: Sure...Joni, it's your kids. Again.
Mom: What do you want now?
10-year-old Laura: Lisa threw all my underwear out the window.
Mom: Put her on the phone.
12-year-old Lisa: I only did it because she waved my bra out the front door like a flag.
Mom: I put you in charge! Do I need to call a babysitter?
12-year-old Lisa: It's not my fault. God, I hate Laura! Why did you even have kids! You hate us so much!
Mom: Just don't burn the house down.
12-year-old Lisa: Whatever, if it burns down it will totally be Laura's fault.

The Regulator and Ben. 

And now she's pretty much our biggest, most supportive fan. She's been by our side for every single step of the crazy journey of getting our first book published. She reads all of your blogs and tells us what's going on. She follows you guys on Twitter and makes sure we know when there's good news to celebrate. She watches our kids when we're out promoting the book. She listens to us worry, celebrate, laugh and cry whenever we get big news.





She may not have Punky Power or Jordan Catalano and she definitely doesn't roll around in sexy heels, but my Mandarin is my Mom. I couldn't do any of this without her.

Are you loving the #IWantToBeLike love as much as we are?

We've joined forces with the AH-MAZING Elana Johnson to bring you some amazing LIKE MANDARIN events this week.

1. NON-blogfest on Wednesday, March 16. You can blog about who you would have given anything to be like when you were a teenager. Use this graphic, and make sure you participate in Kirsten's "I Would Have Given Anything To Be Like..." blog tour. You could win a LIKE MANDARIN swag pack and/or a signed copy of the book.

If you participate in the NON-blogfest (there will be no Linky! This is not a blog-fest! However, if you email us your link, we will tweet it. Better yet, tweet it yourself--see #2 below), you'll be entered for a copy of the book as per Kirsten's guidelines.

Win/Win.

2. Twitter. Use the hashtag #IWantToBeLike any time this week, and you could win one of two copies of LIKE MANDARIN. We'll be drawing two winners on Saturday, March 19 from the#IWantToBeLike feed for a copy of this amazing book.

3. Stay tuned to our blog -- as well as Elana's --this week for other fun LIKE MANDARIN giveaways!

So, tell us the truth this Tuesday, who would you have given anything to be like?

Just for commenting, you'll have a chance to win some Mandarin lip gloss. YUM!

PS: The winner of a brand new bottle of Mandarin nailpolish is Heidi! Congratulations! Email us your address and we'll order ASAP.

PPS: The Liar Society blog tour of RANDOM continues at La Femme Readers and It's All About Books. Check it out!

Like Mandarin Blog Tour: My Mandarin

Today, we're thrilled to be apart of Kirsten Hubbard's blog tour to promote her incredible debut novel LIKE MANDARIN, which we LOVED. More on this tomorrow, but you can click on over to Elana Johnson's blog of awesome for a little preview of what we've got planned for this week.

In Like Mandarin, 14-year-old Grace Carpenter would give anything to be like Mandarin Ramey. Mandarin is seventeen, self-assured, irreverent and mysterious; the notorious wild girl of their small Wyoming town.

From Grace:

Sure, maybe most of the attention Mandarin got was negative. But it wasn't the kind of disdainful brainfreak attention I got, when I got any at all. Hers was lust. And jealousy. Because even as they condemned her, every single girl wanted to be her.


But nobody more than me.


I want to be beautiful like you, I thought, as if Mandarin were listening.


I want apricot skin and Pocahontas hair and eyes the color of tea. I want to be confident and detached and effortlessly sensual, and if promiscuity is part of the package, I will gladly follow your lead. All I know is I'm so tired of being inside my body.


I would give anything to be like Mandarin.

Grace's fascination with Mandarin borders on obsession. When they're paired together for a project, their explosive friendship rocks Grace's world – which makes Mandarin's betrayal even more devastating.

When Kirsten asked us to consider who our Mandarins were growing up, it didn't take long to come up with an answer. In fact, I'm sure most all of you could guess mine as well.

Laura Roecker's Mandarin Ramey = Lisa Roecker

Shocking, right? Let me explain...

Lisa exuded confidence. Even from an early age. I mean, look how she rocked those overalls. No one can rock overalls. Easter hat? Yes, please. We even had the same haircut and played with the same toys. Granted, I'm sure our parents thought it was cute, but I was a pretty happy camper.

Even the third Roecker got in on it. Granted, our juvenile white-framed shades had nothing on Lisa's aviators, but I did get something right with the nightgown. Like Grace and Mandarin, when you have an older sister it's easy to fall into step behind them--because Lisa would NEVER let me next to her all the time.





The older we got, the more I tried. Not only did I continue to mimic her style*, but I talked like her, acted like her, even pouted like her. Now, I knew better than to cut my hair like her at this point. The pyramid look didn't sit well with me.

And it didn't stop in middle school. I think Lisa will always be my Mandarin. Although, I like to think I'm hers every once and a while. God knows, Stacey is both of ours. I think the whole point is that there are all sorts of women to look up to, for all different sorts of reasons. And then somehow, while sorting out the looking up to others, you learn to sort out the being like yourself. Funny how that happens.

So, let's hear it in the comments. Who's your Mandarin? Just for playing, you'll have a chance to win this AWESOME nailpolish we found at our favorite store! A Good Man-darin Is Hard To Find! Isn't that the truth...

*Style is a very loose term. Sorry, Lis.

If You Love Something, Let it Go...

There comes a time in every woman's life where she has to make a choice. Two days ago Laura Roecker went to the Verizon store and made hers.