Laurie Stolarz, is no nightmare. But she DOES write about them. So let’s give her a warm welcome to Trapped. Here’s a little bit about Laurie’s newest book.

From the Publisher:

Welcome to Hillcrest, a high-end East Coast boarding school where readers will find an assortment of normal, run-of-the-mill teens . . . and one very special one.

Stacey Brown’s gift cuts both ways. Her predictive nightmares keep her on the lookout for the marauding maniacs that seem to find her wherever she goes. The folk magic she learned from her grandmother helps protect her and her friends from things that go bump in the night. However, she longs for the quiet life of an ordinary, hormone-plagued high-school girl. Luckily for her droves of dedicated readers, Stacey’s nightmares just keep on coming.

Author Laurie Faria Stolarz has hit a nerve — and a need — with her scintillating series of teen thriller fiction. Her spellbinding writing style mixes with a deep knowledge of the magical world in these fantastic novels. Once readers are caught in her web, they never want to break free.

Frankly, the idea of this book fascinates me. I spent many, many hours with my nose buried in books just like this one, and, in fact, I intend to buy these for MY daughters. Fascinating stuff, interesting topic, and just the type of book to get kids THINKING. God knows I am ALL about that….

Laurie’s other books:

Released July, 2005:

Red is for Remembrance
Llewellyn Publications
ISBN 0-7387-0760-0
Released July, 2005
$8.95
Ages 12 & Up

“I Know You’re Alone.”
Nothing has been the same for eighteen-year-old Stacey since her boyfriend Jacob died. For months she stayed at the beach cottage they shared before Jacob’s tragic accident, refusing to give up hope that somehow, somewhere, Jacob was still alive. But Stacey knows she can’t put off rejoining the world forever. Lucky to have a full scholarship to prestigious Beacon University, Stacey hopes she can finally put her past behind her. Trying to get through her first week of college as just another normal student, Stacey is devastated when she starts having more disturbing dreams. And keeping them secret is not an option when the college president calls her in for a private meeting-and reveals that his daughter Porsha is having nightmares too. But while Stacey dreams of a ghost, Porsha is dreaming of a murder she’s convinced hasn’t happened yet. Porsha’s fragmented nightmares foretell a brutal murder, and may also shed light on a shocking revelation that could change Stacey’s life forever. Together the two must decode their dark dreams to save a life – a risk that may cost them their own.

“Part of a series featuring Stacey that began with Blue is for Nightmares, this book stands firmly on its own and will surely entice readers who enjoy suspenseful reads or those involving Wicca or the supernatural to seek out the rest of Stacey’s stories.”- KLIATT magazine

Other books in the series:

Blue is for Nightmares
Llewellyn Publications
ISBN 0-7387-0391-5
$8.95

2005 Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers
2004 Top Ten Teen Pick Nominee

“I know your secret.”
When high-school junior Stacey starts having nightmares about her best friend becoming the target of one seriously psycho stalker, everyone is a potential suspect. Stacey turns to the one secret weapon she can trust: the folk magic taught to her by her grandmother. Will Stacey’s magic be strong enough to expose the true killer, or will the killer make her darkest nightmares come true?

White is for Magic
Llewellyn Publications
ISBN 0-7387-0443-1
$8.95

2006 Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers Nominee
2005 Coalition of Visionary Resources Finalist, Children’s Books Category
2004 Top Ten Teen Pick Nominee, YALSA

“I’m watching you.”
Just one year later, it’s happening again. Stacey has just begun her senior year at Hillcrest. In a time when she should really be focusing on classes, college applications, and her crumbling love life, all she can think of are her nightmares: a new round of nightly terrors in which Stacey herself is in danger. With help from her family spellbook, Stacey gains the strength and wisdom to face her fears and challenge her demons. But will it be enough to find the killer in time to save her life?

Silver is for Secrets
Llewellyn Publications
ISBN 0-7387-0631-0
$8.95

2006 Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers Nominee
2005 Quill Award Nominee

“I’ll Make You Pay.”
After graduating, spending the summer at the beach seems like the perfect vacation for Stacey. All she wants to do is relax, hang After graduating, spending the summer at the beach seems like the perfect vacation for Stacey. All she wants to do is relax, hang out with her new boyfriend, and enjoy the ocean with her friends. But this proves impossible when her nightmares return — this time accompanied by annoying nosebleeds and a dreadful feeling that danger is lurking nearby. Stacey is finding it difficult to help when people around her obviously are hiding something. What is the mysterious secret? And who is threatening to “make Stacey pay”?

James Frey makes my stomach churn.

It’s pretty fucking disgusting when someone makes money off lying, or pretending to be something he is not. I have issues with this, which, of course, probably are grounded in my Mormon upbringing. When you are fed lies as truth, every day, from the day you are born, you develop an intolerance for it. (That’s a mild word and description, but the best I can come up with right now.)

What leaving behind Mormonism left ME is an inability to believe. I am inherently distrustful. I never swallow anything, hook, line OR sinker. I need proof. I need facts. I need papers, and affidavits and signed, sworn statements.

When you are told all your life that something is THE ONLY TRUE THING, and when you are old enough to investigate, you discover THE ONLY TRUE THING is more like THE ONLY THING THEY WANT YOU TO BELIEVE IS TRUE, you become a skeptic.

And so it goes.

But the recent Frey Fray, as I have become fond of calling it, really has me in a dither. Perhaps it is because I write fiction that “READS” like nonfiction, and perhaps it’s because I was encouraged by a few people to sell said fiction as memoir, that this whole thing bothers me so much.

Just in case you are totally confused, and in case you have been living in a cave the past few months, let me recap. James Frey wrote a book called A Million Little Pieces. I thought about linking this to Amazon, as I usually do, then decided I was NOT going to do that. Sorry, I can be stubborn. Annnnyway, Frey then tried to sell that book as fiction, and was mostly unsuccessful. So he and his agent also tried to sell that book as a memoir. WALLAH! (As my children are fond of saying.) The book sold, THE OPRAH, picked him for her club last fall, and life was good.

He made millions. And then it all unraveled. The Smoking Gun revealed that most of his claims were nothing more than smoke and mirrors–outright lies. THE OPRAH at first defended Frey, and then, faced with public outcry because the TRUTH became patently obvious, finally skewered James Frey on her show this week. Not that the skewering was difficult, at least at this point. She had an unending supply of matches and gasoline, provided by none other than FREY himself. It’s pretty hard to defend yourself against the PATENTLY OBVIOUS, unless you are a Mormon apologist and can talk in circles about the PATENTLY OBVIOUS until the person listening is brain dead or in a coma. That way, you are able to avoid the PATENTLY OBVIOUS part, because the person listening can no longer think. But in Frey’s case, most people could still think. And so, the skewering was quite effective.

I’ve read lots of opinions on the whole debacle. Some blame Oprah, most blame Frey, and of course, a lot blame Nan Talese and Doubleday. I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say that the publisher/editor is somewhat responsible. As a published author, I think I have that right. I know how the process works, and it isn’t that easy to fool the system.

But the bottom line here is the only person REALLY RESPONSIBLE is Frey.

When I first started shopping my book, Wives and Sisters, I did have it suggested to me that I sell it as memoir. (Note: It was not my current publisher, editor, or agent who suggested this.) I had the background, it was loosely based on my life, etc. I knew of what I wrote. But there were a few problems with selling it as memoir.

One of the biggest problems was that IT WAS NOT A MEMOIR. I took incidents in my life and changed them. I changed the names. I changed the people. I took real incidents and made them represent things that had happened to me. I also borrowed from other people’s lives and stories. In short, it was loosely based on my own upbringing. But it was NOT a memoir. And no manner of urging from anyone could change that.

Did some of the events in Wives and Sisters happen to me? Yes, of course. My book starts with a scene where Alli, the heroine, is held at gunpoint at age six. That happened to me. I was held at gunpoint when I was six. That event forever colored my life. I have never forgotten looking down the barrel of that rifle. Wondering if I was going to live or die. Running for my life when the man said run. Worried that I’d lost my shoes, but not willing to turn and go back for them.

I also was terribly afraid to be baptized Mormon at age eight, because I knew from that point on I would be held accountable for all my sins.

I lost more than one person I loved. I suffered from a tyrannical father whose motivation was Godhood.

I can go through the book and tell you, point by point, what each thing represents. But you’d probably lose interest. Perhaps I would, too.

But I didn’t SELL IT AS TRUTH. It is not truth. It is a patchwork memory quilt, sewn together tightly, pieces that don’t match being replaced by fabric that does.

Frey’s explanation, on Oprah, of his girlfriend’s suicide, is an example of this. When I was 16, my mother was betrayed by my father, and she suffered what I consider a spiritual death. This is represented in my book. But not as truth. I never said THIS IS WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED.

Frey changed the facts and details of the death to the point where we now wonder if he even had a girlfriend, if her name was Lily, if she even committed suicide.

By selling his fiction as memoir, Frey has betrayed us all. I understand where his fiction came from. I think I have explained that above. But the bottom line is it is STILL fiction.

Frey betrayed all writers. And I wish he would suffer, but I doubt he will, because his books are still selling. Controversy sells. I would like to see his contracts yanked, but that probably won’t happen either.

I can only protest in my little way. Much like I protest being forced to live Behind the Zion Curtain, in a theocracy ruled by one religion.

I will not read his books, nor will I buy them. It will have no impact. I know that. But I will sleep easier.

Allison Brennan, a good friend of mine, just hit the New York Times Bestselling list….

WAY TO GO ALLISON!! Here it is, the feeling, in her own words, stolen from her blog.

I am still shaking with the news, but THE PREY hit the NY Times extended list at #33. I keep having typos as I’m trying to write this, so I’m leaving it short and sweet . . . thank you to everyone who bought my book and those who recommended it! Remember what I was saying about buzz? It’s word of mouth that helped propel my debut novel to become a bestseller.

I am amazed and giddy and I was giggling this afternoon. I do NOT giggle. My agent was near tears, and she’s not a crier.

Time to celebrate. I’m going shopping

 

You shop, girl. We’ll be cheering you on…..

A commenter on my blog, Jeanette “Jett” Atwood, wrote this:

“I’m not surprised that you single out Larry H Miller on the whole “Brokeback Mountain” controversy, but there are a few things you might consider.

While Larry DOES indeed own the Megaplex Theatre he has nothing to do with scheduling films on the roster. With all his dealerships and the Jazz…he’s got other things to do.

It was a stupid last minute decision from one of the managers at Jordan Commons to pull the film…and it only came to light because newspapers had already gone to press with the show times. The scuttlebutt from inside the Megaplex theatres is that said manager got a severe dressing down from Larry and the whole thing has been enormously blown out of proportion.

As for the show being banned in Utah, that’s just silly. It’s playing to sold out audiences at the Broadway, the Cinemark and the Cineplex. So 3 chains are showing it instead of 4. Big fat hairy deal.”

Fair ’nuff Jett, but if this is true, why isn’t Larry saying anything about it? And if it was not HIS decision, why is he not rectifying it? In fact, Larry Miller REFUSES to go on the record about this at ALL.

He shoved away the microphone of KSL’s radio reporter Ben Winslow in an interview when he was asked to comment on his refusal to show Brokeback Mountain at Jordan Commons. He said, “I’ve explained it all!!!”

Uh, when? WHEN did you explain this and to whom? I watched the clip of Miller shoving away the microphone, and he was very, very angry. And he did no explaining then, and no explaining now, and that alone has left people having to choose sides.

All we have is Larry Miller’s theatre pulling the film and following it with NO COMMENT. Then we have Gayle Ruzicka fondly embracing him as her “hero” (Oh, that just gives me the heebie jeebies, the idea of Gayle warmly embracing anything.)  

If it was someone else’s decision, as a businessman, Larry should have rectified it, or at the least, explained it. And he hasn’t.

So while your explanation is plausible, I don’t see the facts supporting it. 

Singling him out? It’s his theatre, and ultimately, his decision what does and doesn’t run in it. And it’s interesting how Larry pulled the movie AFTER a radio reporter asked him about the decision to AIR it. If it really was someone else’s decision, how odd is that coincidence? Up until that point, Larry apparently had NO idea what the movie was even about, or that it was controversial. Then immediately after it gets pulled.

And I never said the show got banned in Utah. It IS showing elsewhere in the state, and doing quite well. But Larry’s decision just enforced the outside world’s outlook on Utah Mormons (that one’s for you, Kris!) as uptight, conservative, self-righteous homophobes.

If that bothers him, he needs to speak up now and explain. Or he’s just going to be stuck with the label, and Gayle Ruzicka, clinging to his leg. Yuck.

That Tom and Holly…. he he he. See, it’s that time of year again. The time of year when I just want to go to bed and pull the covers over my head and not come out until the Utah legislative session is over.

It happens pretty much every year. Stick-up-the-ass disease is rampant in Utah, mostly because the majority of the population only has one half of their brain functioning. The ass-stick side. That stick pretty much goes all the way through and alters normal brain function. At least that’s my theory.

I’m guessing, though I don’t know for sure, that Tom and Holly were thinking that some libations might help loosen up the stick and maybe even circulate some brain cells and get some real thinking going on. The stick might even fall out. The majority of normal brain function might return. Either that, or they knew that beer bottles, especially beer bottles with labels that read “Evolution Amber Ale,” in honor of an evolution bill, would get people pretty stirred up.

A girl can dream.

Of course, for reasons you might only understand if you live in Utah, they sent the beer bottles EMPTY. EMPTY. Still, even empty, the beer bottles did not amuse the Republicans too much. They were signed, “Bottoms up! Love the Tom Barberi Show. I hear some Democrats were annoyed, too, mostly because the bottles were empty.

Particularly annoyed, at least from what my secret source tells me (Okay, it was Holly), was Sen. Chris Buttars. Remember him? He wants to ban gay clubs in Utah. He is also the sponsor of the Evolution bill. I think that this bill could rightly be called, THE BIGGEST STICK-UP-THE-ASS-BILL-EVER.

Or maybe he’s just the biggest ASS-STICK guy ever.

So, kudos to Tom and Holly for irritating Sen. Chris Buttars. We’re irritated right back, Buttars! Hey, did you notice the first FOUR letters of his name spell BUTT? Get it? Ass-stick? Butt? I just noticed that? Okay, I’ll go to bed now….