Road Trip Wednesday: Pseudonyms

Welcome to our 112th Road Trip Wednesday!

Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where YA Highway's contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question that begs to be answered. In the comments, you can hop from destination to destination and get everybody's unique take on the topic.

We'd love for you to participate! Just answer the prompt on your own blog and leave a link - or, if you prefer, you can include your answer in the comments.

This Week's Topic

If you couldn't use your own name, what would your pseudonym or penname be?

Great question as always. I've always wanted to use my real name. My name -- Paige -- is awesome because I love to read. Paige minus the i -- Page, as in book page. People spell it wrong all the time, but I actually don't mind when they do because my name fits me so well. However, that's not the question.

TANGENT OVER. REAL QUESTION.

For a while I had a pen name when I first started posting my stories online. I no longer use the pen name but I gave me more of a sense of security when I first started posting the stories. The pen name was:

Isabel Charlton.

(I bolded that because...I don't know, I wanted to look cool.) There were a couple of reasons I picked the nane. First, I love the name Isabel and if I had a daughter I'd probably name her Isabel. The last name I randomly picked (thanks, US census list!) and I also thought it was pretty. I picked it because it was far, far from my name and no one would guess who I was.

I think now, if I were to make a pen name, it would be different. I would keep the name Isabel, because I love the name still, but I would change the last name. So I decided to anagram my real last name, because I wanted to be crazy. So in the event that my books are published under a pen name (this is very, very unlikely because I <3 my name), look for me in the stores as

              Isabel Schist En Nor

(There weren't a lot of great names. And Schist En Nor sounds vaguely foreign.)

What's on your highway? What would your pseudonym be? Go to Ya Highway and answer.





Places Where Teens & Kids Can Get Published

Lots of kids and teens I know love to write, and are interested in getting published. They might not want to write a novel and be represented by an agent yet, but they'd love to be published in a magazine or have their stories online. Below are some links to sites where kids  and teens can put their stories online or places where they can submit their stories to magazines. If you think of any more sites please let me know. Note that I do not control any of these sites and cannot be responsible for content.

Kids

New Moon
newmoon.com
This is a site specifically geared towards girls. The company has a website where, if a girl is a member, she can post stories and poems, along with art, on the site to have other girls critique the work. The projects can be submitted for consideration in New Moon magazine. Recommended for girls 8-12.

Stone Soup
http://www.stonesoup.com/
This is a magazine where kids can submit their stories, poems, and book reviews. Editors pick the best of the bunch and the stories are published in the magazine. Submission guidelines are on the website, and authors recieve payment for their stories and poems. 8-13; you can submit stories and poems until you are 14 (14 year olds and up cannot submit stories though they can read the magazine).

Creative Kids
http://www.prufrock.com/client/client_pages/prufrock_jm_createkids.cfm
This is the nation's largest magazine "for kids, by kids". You can submit cartoons, stories, poems, photographs, artwork, games, editorials, and poetry, and whatever else you feel like to the magazine. They're looking for the best work for students ages 8-16.

Highlights
http://www.highlights.com/
The magazine editor says that if readers have a story they'd like to tell, she's interested! Only guidelines are that the stories need to be your own work and be less than 200 words.

Giggle Poetry
http://www.gigglepoetry.com/
This site is only for poetry. It accepts original poems from children. The poems can be submitted online or by mail.

Kids can also be published in certain school-distributed publications like Time for Kids (http://www.timeforkids.com/) and Scholastic News (http://www.scholasticnews.com/).

Teens

Merlyn's Pen
http://www.merlynspen.com/
This is a site for students in grades 6-12 and is supported by teachers. They have a New Library of of Young Adult Writing, which "showcases outstanding works of fiction and nonfiction by students in grades 6-12". You can enter writing contests and teachers can submit their students' best work.

Inkpop
http://www.inkpop.com/
This is a site for those 13+ run by HarperCollins. Writers can submit their own work and critique others, discuss writing on the forums, and interact with other writers. Every month the top stories are critiqued by HarperCollins editors for a chance at publication.

The Blue Pencil
http://www.thebluepencil.net/
This is a site for high schoolers run by the students in the Writing & Publishing Program at Walnut Hill School for the Arts. They want to publish the best literary work by young writers around the world. It also offers a scholarship prize.

The Claremont Review
http://www.theclaremontreview.ca/
An international literary magazine for young adults.

Teen Ink
http://www.teenink.com/
A monthly print magazine, site, and book series written by teens for teens. You can submit your stories and poems to the site for a chance to be published in the Teen Ink magazine.

Lightning Bug
http://lightningbug.com.au/
An Australian website designed to help young adults with story writing. The site is intended to be a "writing companion and a resource to draw on as you craft a narrative".

Hopefully these sites will be helpful.

Finnikin of the Rock by Melina Marchetta

Finnikin of the Rock by Melina Marchetta

2008 Printz Award Winner Melina Marchetta crafts an epic fantasy of ancient magic, exile, feudal intrigue, and romance that rivets from the first page.

Finnikin was only a child during the five days of the unspeakable, when the royal family of Lumatere were brutally murdered, and an imposter seized the throne. Now a curse binds all who remain inside Lumatere’s walls, and those who escaped roam the surrounding lands as exiles, persecuted and despairing, dying by the thousands in fever camps. In a narrative crackling with the tension of an imminent storm, Finnikin, now on the cusp of manhood, is compelled to join forces with an arrogant and enigmatic young novice named Evanjalin, who claims that her dark dreams will lead the exiles to a surviving royal child and a way to pierce the cursed barrier and regain the land of Lumatere. But Evanjalin’s unpredictable behavior suggests that she is not what she seems — and the startling truth will test Finnikin’s faith not only in her, but in all he knows to be true about himself and his destiny.





This is how you write epic fantasy. Writers, if you want to know how to write amazing fantasy, please read this novel. Marchetta skilfully breaks down fantasy cliches and puts them into an amazing, fast-paced and adventurous novel that while hefty, doesn't feel hefty at all.

Lumatere has been destroyed for the past ten years, since the five days of the unspeakable. During those five days, the royal family was massacred; the religious Forest Dwellers killed; Finnikin's father was sent to prison and his lover died after giving birth to a stillborn baby. Finnikin and his mentor, Sir Topher, travel the country assisting the exiles and recording all of the data (who died, who lives, sickness, hunger, etc) in their Book of Lumatere . (I keep spelling Lumatere wrong.) Finnikin is sleeping one night when a voice whispers in his ear the name of the dead prince, Bahalzar, and he knows he must go to the cloister of Lagrami. There he meets Evanjalin, a novice, who "walks the sleep" and claims to know where Bahalzar is living.

Okay, let's start with Evanjalin. She is my new favorite YA heroine. Writers, if you want to write kickass girls, read this book. Marchetta transformed the cliche of a badass girl by giving Evanjalin real feelings . Sometimes you read books with supposedly badass girls, like the amazing number of dystopian novels being released. These books usually have badass girls, but a lot of times they are trying too hard to be badass or don't end up being badass at all. Marchetta transformed Evanjalin into a real person by giving her flaws, feelings, and sympathy towards other characters. I seriously adore her. (view spoiler)[ Though she is way more of an Evanjalin than an Isaboe in my head. (hide spoiler)]

The rest of the characters were just as developed with flaws and emotions and feelings. Trevanion truly loved Lady Beatriss, and I'm interested to see how that plays out over the next book as supposedly the plot line is resolved. Finnikin really loved Evanjalin/I; Froi really started to redeem himself; and essentially every character was fantastic.

The plot was where I was a bit concerned. Recovering a kingdom isn't exactly new ground in fantasy. While the description sounded interesting, I was worried that the Bahaltzar storyline would be predictable. But it wasn't. Marchetta cleverly took tropes -- the missing prince, the wise healer, the brave soldier, the thief, the badass -- and turned them into real people, real settings, and a real story. Nothing was predictable. If you reread the story you find all the hints, the clues; everything is set up and foreshadowed.

Marchetta's writing....can I just put every word in the dictionary next to "beautiful" here? Joking aside, it was as beautiful as always, rich and fluid. (There are too many commas in this paragraph moving on).

The one major issue some might have is the heftiness of this book. I'm unsure of the climax (view spoiler)[ either when they reveal Bahalzar is dead or the battle itself (hide spoiler)] but my two ideas happen in the middle of the story, but all the scenes count and they are all very, very interesting.

If you like Marchetta, read this book. If you like fantasy, read it. Nah. Everybody read it.

ALSO.

I AM TOTALLY TEAM EVANJALIN.

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The Line

(Please note that I am a member of Goodreads. I have discussed the situation with several other members on the site and really enjoy my use of the website. None of the author's names or reviewers are mentioned; however, if you are interested in finding out which authors/reviewers, please check Goodreads.  I have not read any of the authors' books, and I have tried to make this post as unbiased as possible. If you feel that there is something wrong with my post, please list it in the comments. Hopefully we can have an enriching and interesting discussion and I will correct all errors mentioned. Again, this entire post is all my opinion and not the author's or Goodreads, or other Goodreads members.)

Recently, a few events one would consider troubling or dergatory has happened on the website Goodreads (goodreads.com). A reviewer posted a review of a book, said she disliked it, and several other people agreed and said that they were not interested in the novel either. An author commented on the review and essentially said that the reviewer, who was entitled to her own personal opinion, was wrong. The reviewer responded graciously though the author continued to harass her. A small campaign began on the author's Twitter, with other young adult authors participating and claiming that Goodreads was a site where authors went to ruin their future careers, bash books, and a place for assholes. Most of the tweets were removed. However, most of the members of Goodreads found the comments deragatory and false. Many people stood up on the original review, and several of the authors left apologies. But despite the apologies, many people on Goodreads said that their opinions of the authors had been damaged and they would no longer be reading their books. They marked the author's novels under a "will-never-read" shelf.

This is only the most recent controversy, though plenty of others have popped up both on Goodreads and other places online. This controversy, though, really highlights the author-blogger relationship and all of its many challenges.

Many authors now have blogs and websites. This is considered a standard for authors, and I'll admit it's one I expect; when I Google an author and find that they don't have a website and/or blog I'm disappointed. The authors usually update their blog with information on what they are writing, events that will be held (such as book signings or school visits) and sometimes book reviews. Many authors now write book reviews, and these reviews are often enjoyed and given many comments. The reviews can be very excellent and some authors are fantastic reviewers both on their blog and on Goodreads.

It is possible for an author to have a seamless relationship as both an author and a reviewer. But sometimes there is a hard line. Authors get out of line, by posting reviews getting angry about negative reviews, or bashing a review community like Goodreads. Both situations happened in the Goodreads debacle.

It's a hard line that the authors need to remember. They need to honor and respect reviewers just like they are. They are reviewers and should respect reviewers, as they are just like the other reviewers: they post book reviews with their opinion and people comment. They need to not bash other reviews or reviewers online. Fine, they can bash other reviewerers privately, but they shouldn't post bashes online anywhere -- whether it be Goodreads or Twitter.

I know that it's hard to be a reviewer and an author. There are questions -- like should I write a Goodreads review of my book? Am I sucking up to people in reviews? There are more, but I cannot think of any.

And it's the same with reviewers -- should I post this scathing review? Do I only ever write 4 star reviews? There are questions for each one.

But both authors and reviewers have to make sure that they stay on that invisible line. That they stay respectful of other authors and reviewers. I think if this line was bridged, we'd have a better YA blogger community.

Reviewers and authors are becoming more and more seamed together, as more authors have blogs, Goodreads profiles, and interact with other reviewers. But both the authors and the reviewers need to stay on that thin line.

Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley

Just when seventeen-year-old Cullen Witter thinks he understands everything about his small and painfully dull Arkansas town, it all disappears. . . .
In the summer before Cullen's senior year, a nominally-depressed birdwatcher named John Barling thinks he spots a species of woodpecker thought to be extinct since the 1940s in Lily, Arkansas. His rediscovery of the so-called Lazarus Woodpecker sparks a flurry of press and woodpecker-mania. Soon all the kids are getting woodpecker haircuts and everyone's eating "Lazarus burgers." But as absurd as the town's carnival atmosphere has become, nothing is more startling than the realization that Cullen’s sensitive, gifted fifteen-year-old brother Gabriel has suddenly and inexplicably disappeared.
While Cullen navigates his way through a summer of finding and losing love, holding his fragile family together, and muddling his way into adulthood, a young missionary in Africa, who has lost his faith, is searching for any semblance of meaning wherever he can find it. As distant as the two stories seem at the start, they are thoughtfully woven ever closer together and through masterful plotting, brought face to face in a surprising and harrowing climax.
Complex but truly extraordinary, tinged with melancholy and regret, comedy and absurdity, this novel finds wonder in the ordinary and emerges as ultimately hopeful. It's about a lot more than what Cullen calls, “that damn bird.” It’s about the dream of second chances.

So I'll start this review by saying that the book has been getting a lot of buzz. It recieved a starred review from Publisher's Weekly ; the book was nominated for a William C. Morris Debut Award; the author was named a 20 Under 30 author by NPR; and the author was a Flying Start Author (again from PW ). I'm sure there have been more reviews/buzz/etc, but those are the ones I can think of off of the top of my mind. Award books usually make me interested, not only because of the connotation that surrounds them that they're "good", but because I always wonder: was this book good enough to deserve an award?

In the case of Where Things Come Back , I'm not quite sure.

The story is about Cullen Witter, a seventeen-year-old boy who lives in the small town of Lily, Arkansaw. He dreams of getting out of town and becoming someone better. He idolizes his brother, Gabriel, who everyone seems to enjoy and like. Gabriel goes missing one night, and Cullen's life is thrown into a tailspin. After Gabriel disappears, a long-forgotten woodpecker is discovered. The town explodes in media frenzy and bird watchers, with woodpecker hamburgers and hotels. The story is interpersed with a third-person narrative of Benton Sage, a former missionary. Benton attempted to go to Ethiopia as a missionary but found the mission hard and left, much to the chagrain of his church (who then said he could no longer attend any missions and that he was no longer accepted in the church). Benton, defeated, goes to college. Lost in religious questions, Benton kills himself and his roomate discovers his diary.

The characters were...okay. I don't really particularly care for any of them. Cullen was a nice kid, a typical teenage boy with relatable feelings towards girls, his family, and his friends. The book titles he wrote were creative and about the only thing I really remember. His narrative was hard to read at times. He would start to refer to himself in third person and tell (tell, not show) what happened in scenes. This left me feeling pretty detached and confused. His two particular love interests were pretty good, though I'll admit when the first love interest returns mid-way through the book I had completely forgotten about her. Cullen's best friend Lucas was nice, funny, and smart, as was his girlfriend Mena. Gabriel was the same. Corey Whaley actually was pretty smart and made the parents prevelent and their reactions to the story well done. It was hard to relate to Benton Sage and his roomate, as they were both pretty screwed up. Reading about them was almost scary. But I felt pretty detached from the story.

The plot was better. Gabriel's missing case was well developed, and I could really feel for Lucas and his family's predicament. The woodpecker aspect made for funny and interesting reading as well as bringing up a lot of questions. I did figure out what would happen with the woodpecker plot pretty early on; that part of the story is a bit predictable if interesting. I was confused with Benton Sage's story for a while but it makes sense in the end. Corey Whaley ties things together in a very nice ending.

Corey Whaley's writing though, is very fluid, and he shows a teenage boy's mind well.

I was left, though, kind of feeling confused. Award books are known for really affecting people, whether it makes them sad, happy, angry, or something else. The book was essentially interesting and confusing. I wondered if the reason this book had so many buzz was it confused people.

Maybe that's it.

I did like the story, I did like the characters, and the setting and all that, and it was a nice story even if nothing really pops out at me right away. It was a nice story, pretty nice, pretty sweet. But I left feeling so confused and saying that was kind of weird. . And I think that might have been Corey Whaley's intention, to confuse the reader, to make them feel uncertain with the characters and the story.

And he did a splendid job of it.

The FitzOsbornes in Exile by Michelle Cooper

Michelle Cooper combines the drama of pre-War Europe with the romance of debutante balls and gives us another compelling historical page turner.

Sophia FitzOsborne and the royal family of Montmaray escaped their remote island home when the Germans attacked, and now find themselves in the lap of luxury. Sophie's journal fills us in on the social whirl of London's 1937 season, but even a princess in lovely new gowns finds it hard to fit in. Is there no other debutante who reads?!

And while the balls and house parties go on, newspaper headlines scream of war in Spain and threats from Germany. No one wants a second world war. Especially not the Montmaravians—with all Europe under attack, who will care about the fate of their tiny island kingdom?

Will the FitzOsbornes ever be able to go home again? Could Montmaray be lost forever?

I eagerly anticipated the arrival of my copy of this book. I had adored the first novel, A Brief History of Montamaray and loved the FitzOsborne family. Was it what I expected? Quite frankly, it was fabulous -- better than the first book, even.

The story picks up after the events of the first novel. The jacket copy gives the spoiler away but I'll still hide it:)[The island of Montmaray was bombed by German soldiers and the FitzOsbornes had to escape ]. Now living in London with their Aunt Charlotte, the FitzOsbornes struggle to escape. Michelle Cooper sets up subplots once again: their aunt desperatley wants Veronica and Sophie married in the London Season; Toby is trying to understand his sexuality; Henry is annoying her governess; Simon is trying to understand himself as a person and his mother's opinions; and Veronica is becoming braver.

The big arc of the story focuses on Veronica. I'm not crazy -- Cooper said that on her blog as well. The story focuses on Veronica coming into her own, becoming braver, fighting for her country and understanding herself. It was a great arc and I didn't mind, as Veronica is an awesome historian girl.

The characters, as always, are wonderful. The characters are really what holds this series up. The plots are great, very action packed and exciting, but the reason people seem to enjoy this series (and I see this cited in plenty of Goodreads reviews) ae the characters. Everyone loves Simon, Toby, Veronica, Henry, and Sophie, their flaws, their actions. You really yearn for the characters, really hope they'll be alright and survive the war. And besides that, they're funny! All of them are always messing up. Sophie and Veronica mess up their fancy Season balls; Henry is annoying to her governess; Toby cracks jokes all the time but can't seem to stay serious; and Simon gets hilariously angry. You love them for their hilariousness and their screwups. (In fact, I knew I would love this book when eleven-year-old Henry started making sex jokes. I know.)

The plot, as I mentioned, is great. It's very exciting and action packed and interesting, as they fight to regain control of their country and get assistance from other nations (specifically from the League of Nations). There are more refrences to famous people in this one -- the author lists them all in a VERY long author's note -- but it colors the story and makes it very interesting. The only thing that I found quibbling were the politics, which sometimes grew confusing. The author's device for discussing politics was having Veronica and Simon, who both knew politics well, argue about politics. This made it harder, but I understood things pretty good and I loved the story so much I didn't really care.

The story is written in journal format, in a very nice and sweet way. I felt less detached from the scenes this time, as I mentioned in my review of the first novel, and really felt like I was there with all of the characters. The main difference with the use of journal formatting was the time skips; the entries are often months away from each other. For instance, Sophie journals in January and then doesn't journal until mid-February. The story also crosses across a long period of time -- two years, unlike the first novel's three or four months of entries. This isn't a big deal, though it forces you to think harder and the truth is, you can just ignore the dates if you want.

I adored the story and if you love historical fiction this is a must-read. I'm so glad I bought this story and I can't wait for the third installment in the series, The FitzOsbornes at War which comes out this spring. Also: I totally <3 the FitzOsbornes. Just saying.

Teaser

The mystery is in full swing! This is an excerpt from Building Houses at the beginning of the eighteenth chapter.

(Longer excerpt as I planned to post a review today but Goodreads/Blogger were being stupid.)

---

The first thing Janna told me when she opened the door was, “I found some friends.” I paused from my spot in the door and said, “Already?”

Really. She was so amazing. I shook my head in disbelief. Somehow, less than twenty four hours, Janna had started our case. It was barely eight thirty in the morning and she was up. I hadn’t even bothered to look at the list of interviewee ideas since I’d read it the day before. Janna beamed and slid the door open wider. Two people stood behind her. I squinted, looking at them. One was an older black woman that looked like a grandmother. Long white curls framed her eyes and made her chin appear bigger. Sweet, charming age lines filled her cheeks and wrinkles framed the edges of her mouth. She wore a wide, flouncy dress patterned with flowers and old Mary Jane shoes.

“This is Mrs. Ellis,” Janna said.                                                

“Oh.” I put on my sweetest, sugary smile. I could have licked ice cream off the sugariness of the smile. “I don’t think we’ve met before.”

Mrs. Ellis laughed. Her stomach rolled, her feet shook, her hair quaked. “Oh sugar, I think we have.”

Uh, no. I tried to keep my eyes off her rolling stomach. “Ma’am, I don’t think so.” The old woman answered this question by letting out another belly laugh. Janna gently leaned over and placed a hand on her shoulder. This seemed to be some kind of reminder; almost instantly Mrs. Ellis exhaled a deep sigh and fell silent.

“Remember the day they found Lily?” Janna asked, ending the embarrassing silence. “I was talking to Mrs. Ellis. She lives in this building, upstairs.” Mrs. Ellis let out another belly laugh. She seemed to be suppressing herself this time, and thankfully the laughs were quieter.

“Room three hundred fourteen,” she said with a smile. Janna smiled, echoing the grin, and turned to the girl beside her. The girl grunted. She sounded almost like some kind of prehistoric monster. I turned slightly to the right to see her better.

This girl was obviously a teenager, with long blonde hair that nearly fell to her feet. She wore a shirt that purposely was designed to look shredded and pants. If I squinted, she almost looked like a crazy blonde monster. Ahh. Great, now I’d have nightmares. I shook the image from my mind, shaking my head so wildly I got a headache.

“This is McKenna,” Janna said. McKenna – teenager, monster, whatever creature she happened to be – grunted again. She crossed her arms over her chest in some kind of stereotypical angry pose. “She’s Lily’s sister.”

I recognized her. She’d been on TV when they found Lily. In person, she seemed skinnier. The camera put on all those extra pounds of weight. Pixels didn’t always help a person. “Hi,” I said. “I’m Jaycee.”

“Yeah, I’ve heard.” McKenna sighed. “So let’s get onto this interview.” Sassy and cranky like me. Somehow I liked her.

“Well, I’ll be interviewing Mrs. Ellis,” Janna said smugly. “She asked for me herself.” I rolled my eyes. There were only two possible interviewers, duh. Mrs. Ellis beamed and patted Janna on the head. She nodded towards the closed bedroom door.

“Can we go in there?” the woman asked.

“Sure. Fine.” There wasn’t anything in the bedroom that  the two of them could mess around with. And it wasn’t like I really cared. The bedroom was more like a storage closet than a bedroom. Mrs. Ellis beamed again and threw open the door. Through the crack she opened, I could see my bedroom: the unmade bed, the pile of books on the dresser. Janna and Mrs. Ellis shared a look and then the two of them walked into my bedroom and slammed the door.

“Well, that’s over.” McKenna snorted. “So we get to have a discussion now.”

“Yep.” I gestured towards the couches. A pile of old romance novels littered the couch coushions. Quickly I slid the worn paperbacks off the couch and set them on the floor. “Sit down.” McKenna raised an eyebrow.

Crap. She definitely wouldn’t sit down. “Okay, fine. You don’t have to sit down.” Why were we even arguing about this? McKenna smirked.

“I was playing you. God, you’re stupid.” She rolled her eyes and collapsed into one of the chairs. I sat down on the couch across from her. McKenna grabbed the remote from a side table. With a click, the TV turned on. The television was turned to some kind of war history channel. An aging man sat in a rocking chair, posing for the camera. A small white line below his name showed that he was some kind of historian.

“The battle was certainly crucial, mostly because it showed the many inferiority complexes,” the man said in a slow voice, “that the culture had provoked, leading to war, disaster, and eventually deaths.”  I rolled my eyes.

“Are you going to change the channel?”

McKenna stared at me. “Why? War history’s not that bad,” she answered, snarky tone still intact.

“I guess. It’s violent.”

“Everything about this damn world is violent.” She rolled her eyes.

“I guess.” It was a lame argument, but “I guess” seemed to be the only thing I could say. McKenna fell back into her chair with a deep exhale.

“What are we supposed to interview about?” she asked. I shrugged. There hadn’t been any time to think of interview questions. Maybe if Janna had told me before that I would be interviewing McKenna, I could have splashed down a few ideas, but now there was no time.

“How you feel about your sister, I guess.”

“How I feel about my sister.” McKenna repeated the question slowly. “I guess I have no fucking idea how I feel about my sister. And I’d like to – sure as hell – not talk about her.”

I frowned. “Then why did you say we could interview you?”

“Why do bad things happen in this world? I don’t give a shit and neither do you, either. That girl came up to me on the street, said a bunch of crap and then I said yes to get rid of her and she got a stupid smile on her face,” McKenna said.

“Oh.” Figured. Janna annoyed everyone. McKenna shrugged.

“So what shit do you want to know on my sister?”

“Um….” I cast around in my head for some kind of notes, some far-off idea I had slid to the back of my mind. Nothing came. I decided to go for the easy question. “How does she act?”

McKenna raised an eyebrow. “She acts like a teenager. Moody, distant. What did you expect?”

Fine, I’d have to get better with my questions. I leaned against the chair, letting myself sink into the warmth of the pillows. “Does she act different now that she’s back home?” There. That was better. I leaned back with a smirk. McKenna paused for the faintest second—a millisecond or a decisecond would have been a better term – and said, “Of course.”

“Okay.” I looked around frantically. Mom had set a legal pad on an end table. I scooped the pad up and flipped it to a fresh lined yellow page. A pen lay beside the pad. I poised the pen against the page, ready to write fantastical words. “How different?”

McKenna leaned back. She furrowed her brow and frowned in an exaggerated pose. “I guess she’s just moodier. Doesn’t talk as much. My mom hates it. It’s as annoying as hell when she acts like that, y’know.”

I nodded. Made sense. “So your mom gets upset. Do other people in your family get upset?” Oh crap. I sounded like a psychologist, asking all kinds of questions in an overly formal tone. McKenna didn’t seem to mind.

“Yeah, basically all of them get upset. My mom, my dad, my sister Rosalie, my brother Josh, and the baby, Sadie.” She sounded so casual.

“Why?”

McKenna rolled her eyes. “You’d make a horrible psychologist.”