Be sure to check out Golden by Jennifer Lynn Barnes ... looks fab!!



At Emory High, there are two kinds of people: those who matter, and those who don’t.

When Lissy James moves from California to Oklahoma, she finds herself in the middle of a teenage nightmare: a social scene to rival a Hollywood movie. And if understanding the hierarchy of the Goldens vs. the Nons isn’t hard enough, Lissy’s ever growing Aura Vision is getting harder and harder to hide, and if she’s not careful, she’s going to become a Non faster than you can say “freak.”

But it’s becoming clear that Emory High has a few secrets of its own. Around the halls, the term “special powers” goes way beyond one’s ability to attract the opposite sex, and there may be something more evil than the A-crowd lurking in the classrooms. Lissy can see a lot more than the average girl, but she’s about to learn the hard way that things aren’t always as they appear and you can’t always judge a girl by her lip gloss.

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Here are Jennifer's answers to my questions!


HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR TYPICAL ?WRITING DAY??
My typically writing day usually starts about two in the morning. I'm
definitely a late night writer, and since I was in college during pretty much
the entire process for GOLDEN, late at night was the best time for me to write
without missing out on anything else going on in the dorms. Typically, I sit
down, read through the last chapter I wrote, and then just start writing, and
don't stop until I've finished a chapter (usually somewhere around 2500 words).
At the beginning of a book, or the very end, I'll sometimes do an all-day
writing day, just because I get really involved in it, but for the most part, I
make it through my books a chapter a night.

DO YOU RECALL THE KERNEL OF INSPIRATION FOR THIS BOOK?
I knew I wanted to write about a teenage girl who could see auras, so I took a
few minutes to think about what kind of situation that power would be the most
helpful (and the most mortifying) in, and remembered my own experiences
transferring schools at the start of the ninth grade. Once I'd decided that my
aura seer was going to be navigating the clique scene at a new high school, I
just started writing, and the rest of the story kind of evolved from there.

PICK A CHARACTER IN THE BOOK AND TELL US WHAT TRAIT YOU SHARE (OR COME CLOSEST
TO SHARING) WITH THAT CHARACTER.
My narrator, Lissy, and I share a decently large number of traits- most
specifically, thick, slightly frizzy hair, and an inner voice that's much more
sarcastic than anything we actually say out loud.

IF YOU WERE STUCK ON A DESERT ISLAND, WOULD YOU RATHER HAVE A MAGICAL TRUNK
THAT GAVE YOU LIMITLESS BOOKS TO READ, OR A LIMITLESS SUPPLY OF PAPER ON WHICH
TO WRITE?
This may be the hardest question I've ever had to answer, but I think I'd have
to go with the paper. I get pretty twitchy if I go without writing for too
long.

BEER OR WINE?
Actually, neither. I'm mildly allergic to wine and can't take the taste of
beer.

CHOCOLATE OR VANILLA?
Vanilla. I'm one of those strange people who really dislikes the taste of
chocolate.

WHAT?S YOUR ALL-TIME FAVORITE BOOK?
Probably Matilda by Roald Dahl- it's the perfect mix of humor, character, and
the fantastical, which are my three favorite things to find in any book.

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What People Are Saying About The Book:

“…A well-balanced blend of fast-moving fantasy and light, playful chick lit.”
–Kirkus Reviews

“Golden glows with the spot-on 
insights and pitch-perfect prose of someone whose knowledge of adolescence is absolutely fresh… Golden is a captivating mix of everyday teen terrors and supernatural suspense."
-Borders Online, July Newsletter

Bio:

A Native Oklahoman, Jennifer Lynn Barnes is a recent graduate of Yale University, where she studied cognitive science (the study of the brain and thought). Her research on animal and child cognition has been featured on ABC’s World News Tonight, Animal Planet, and The New York Times, and Jennifer will be spending the 2006/2007 school year abroad, doing autism research at the University of Cambridge.

Jennifer wrote Golden at the age of nineteen, and her second book, Tattoo, will be available in January of 2007.