Author Heather McCorkle

To read my entry for the last day of the I Love Dark YA blogfest (which is the dark YA novel I'm most looking forward to) go here !

Today is sadly the last post for the I Love Dark YA blogfest. I've been having so much fun and have met so many amazing people. For today's post we have to choose a dark YA book to feature that has touched our lives. I've chosen the very first dark YA book that I read as a teen. The only reason I read it was because it was required reading, and I'm so glad it was because it opened my eyes and changed something inside me. Friendship, love, hardship, tragedy, and learning to accept people as they are, The Outsiders has it all. It was a classic then and still holds the title today. What dark YA novel has touched your life? Scroll down to see my entry for the New Author Blog Hop, and enter the giveaway!

Today for the I Love Dark YA Blogfest we're picking one of our favorite dark YA novels, casting it, and giving it a soundtrack. There are a ton of YA novels I love, but because I'm strapped for time~and because I thought you might like to know who I'd cast~I'm going to pick The Secret Of Spruce Knoll. Vanessa Hudgens are Eren Donovan. Her hair is a bit light since Eren has truly black hair, but that can be fixed. Otherwise, she has the same slightly exotic look, and despite some cheesy roles, she can act (no seriously!). Taylor Kisch as Aiden Moldovan. Need I say why? *sigh* Those hazel eyes are just perfect and his ability to play a lost, slightly sullen teen is unparalleled. Okay, maybe not, but I'm smitten, what can I say? Sure, he'll be too old by the time the movie is ever made, but a girl can dream. I've always thought Michelle Rodrigues would make the perfect Aunt Sylvia. It's time someone gave the lady a role besides a bada** ...

This week during the I Love Dark YA blogfest we're supposed to write a 500 word short on this photo. Here goes: The hatch protests with a horrible screech as it opens for the first time in ten years. Pale sunlight pours into the tiny opening to the surface world, blinding even it's softness. But it's beautiful, warm on my skin. I have forgotten how it looked, how it felt. But it isn't the bright, beautiful yellow I remember. It's white and muted, like it used to look on cloudy days. With limbs that shake from anticipation, I climb the hatch ladder. The natural light hurts my eyes, forcing me to shade them as I take my first steps onto the surface. Peeking through my hands, I see that the world is now washed out shades of gray. Where is all the green? Gone, all gone. My eyes sting with tears. A twig snaps, a hollow, dead sound. I am not alone. Now I'm off to visit the other blogfesters ! I hope you'll join me. 

Every Wednesday this month I'm joining my co-hosts  Christa , Kelly , E.R. ,  YAtopia and many other blogger friends in celebrating my love of dark young adult novels. So you won't see my Wednesday Writing Goal posts for a month. But the timing is great since I know many of you are busy with NaNo. Each week we have a different theme. You don't want to miss all the stops because it will be a ton of fun and we'll be doing a giveaway at the end of the month. To see what the themes are, and who is participating, click here . This week we're blogging about our favorite dark YA novel (s). There are so many great ones that I had a lot of trouble choosing so I'm featuring three. The first is Crank by Ellen Hopkins. It is the epitome of dark. In fact, it's a subject most people don't want to touch and Ellen tackled it beautifully. Any and all of Ellen's books fall under this beautifully dark category. She isn't afraid to go where others won't ...

On my sidebar you might notice a new button to purchase a signed copy of a paperback of my novel. This is due in part to having to cancel my author appearance that was planned for today in Seattle. To start to make it up to those who were going to attend I'm offering the signed copies for sale for a limited time. My author appearance has been rescheduled (same place) for Saturday December 10th, 3:00pm~4:00pm. On to today's post... My inspiration last week was all the amazing bloggers who turned out to celebrate and support banned books. The massive amount of support for banned books was overwhelming. You peeps rock! Since I know many of you are dying to know who won the Banned Books Week Giveaway here on my blog I'll get right to it. Congratulations to: Julie Tuovi at Pen To Paper who won her choice of one of the banned books pictured on the left, or any book by one of the authors who has a book pictured above. In appreciation of everyone who entered, if you didn...