Erin Bowman Takes the Dare!

This fabulous dare came in from Andrea, one of our readers, and it sounded like too much fun to pass up:

Write a short Dr. Seuss-inspired poem version of your book and post it on the blog.

I absolutely adored Dr. Seuss as a child. These stories were some of the first read to me, and the first I was able to read on my own. (Did you know Green Eggs and Ham has just fifty words, only one of which is more than one syllable?) And even with such a simplistic vocabulary, these books were drilling some very important lessons into my little head.

If Dr. Seuss books were titled according to their subtexts, via Buzzfeed

Ahem. Moving on to my dare...

I spent a little time browsing through a bunch of Dr. Seuss books, and finally settled on the one I thought I could rework to represent my debut novel, Taken.

So now, here is my Dr. Seuess-esque poem for Taken, inspired by Marvin K. Mooney Will You Please Go Now!

Your birthday’s come.
Your birthday’s now.
You’ll go, go, go!
We’re not certain how. 

You will go by Heist.
You will go, ciao!
Gray Weathersby, you’ll be going now. 

You can try to fight it.
You can kick and scream.
But it’s still coming for you.
So don’t struggle,
Please! 

We don’t care.
You can’t escape that light.
You can’t escape that light even if you like.
If you try to run, it will still find you.
Just go, go, go.
Accept it, please do. 

Gray Weathersby, I don’t know how.
Gray Weathersby, you’ll be going now. 

You will go in a flash.
You will go in a blink.
You will go in a burst of light, I think.
If you wish not to, alas you’re stuck
Your birthday’s here, you’re out of luck. 

Don’t run away,
Please, Gray,
You’ll be going either way. 

Gray Weathersby
We don’t know how.
Gray Weathersby
You’ll be going now! 

We said go and go we meant.
The time had come.
So Gray…went.

Yeah, I might have had a little too much fun doing this. Another Thirteener will be up next week to answer a new truth or dare, but until then, you can always get your book-nerd fix on our Thirteeners tumblr.

Thanks again for the fun dare, Andrea!

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Erin Bowman is a YA writer, letterpress lover, and Harry Potter enthusiast living in New Hampshire. Her debut novel, TAKEN is now available from HarperTeen, and FROZEN releases 4/15/14. You can visit her blog (updated occasionally) or find her on twitter (updated obsessively).

Alexandra Duncan Takes the Truth

Sexxxy!

Some of you may remember from our post this past summer that I married my high school sweetheart. One of our readers asked us to describe the first time we ever went on a date, so of course my thoughts went straight to the first date my now-husband and I went on. We went to see What Dreams May Come and then, despite having just watched a movie about death starring Robin Williams, we kissed on the back porch of my parent's house. It was my first kiss, and I was so self-conscious that I don't really remember anything about it except that it happened and I was super excited about it.

My future husband and I having a picnic. I'm 17, he's 19. We don't yet know that Mountain Dew is disgusting.

But then I remembered an even earlier date, a date so early I don't really know if you can technically call it a date. But I'm going to tell you about it anyway.

In elementary school, I had a crush on a boy in my class named Keith.* He was blonde and skinny and grew up to be a drug addict, but at the time, we were two innocent schoolkids. On the second to last day of fifth grade, we decided we were "dating," and then proceeded to not see each other for the rest of the summer. We had only a tenuous grasp on the concept.

Likes to run. Not very nice to boys.

Toward the end of the summer before sixth grade, my aunt gave me a gift certificate for two tickets to a local movie theater. The idea was that one of my friends and I would go see a movie together for my 11th birthday. Only I wanted to take Keith. Despite some concerned looks, my mother agreed to pick him up and drive us to the movies. I don't remember what we saw, but I do remember challenging Keith to a footrace outside the shopping center while we were waiting for my mom to pick us up after the movie. At the time, I saw no reason to let a boy win a footrace against me, even if I liked him. I beat him pretty soundly and I doubt I was very nice about it. Not surprisingly, Keith decided we should "just be friends" shortly after sixth grade started.

So, I'll leave it up to you, readers. Which one of these was actually my first date?

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*Of course this is not his real name.
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Alexandra Duncan is a writer and librarian. Her first novel, Salvage, is due to be released by Greenwillow Books on April 1, 2014. Her short stories have been featured in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy. She loves anything that gets her hands dirty – pie-baking, leatherworking, gardening, drawing, and rolling sushi, to name a few. You can find her online at Twitter, Goodreads, and her web site.

Full Moon + Valentine's Day = Our Kind Of Holiday

Here at Friday the Thirteeners we like to roll a little off-kilter. When we saw that the full moon was landing smack on top of everyone's favorite romantic holiday, we thought we'd take advantage of it with a little foray into the imaginative dating lives of the fake people we've created. Or if our book was going to date another book, who would they pick?

Mindy McGinnis:

It was suggested to me once at a book signing that Lynn from NOT A DROP TO DRINK would be an ideal girlfriend for Daryl from The Walking Dead. I think that could work - but first they'd sidestep around each other with weapons drawn for about two years before either of them admitted to liking the other.

Erin Bowman:

TAKEN would date THE MAZE RUNNER! They'd be besties!

Alexandra Duncan:

I think SALVAGE would probably get along really well with SHIP BREAKER, by Paolo Bacigalupi. They have a few key things in common - worlds ravaged by global warming and people living off the scraps or our former prosperity - but they also have enough that's different that they would have something to talk about. SALVAGE is a little more emotional than SHIP BREAKER, but I think they would balance each other out nicely.

April Genevieve Tucholke:

BETWEEN THE DEVIL AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA just had its heart broken by a Stephen King short story collection and is now going to hook up with Richie Cusick's THE LIFEGUARD, just for the summer.

Megan Shepherd:

THE MADMAN'S DAUGHTER is going on a date with THIS DARK ENDEAVOR by Kenneth Oppel. Dr. Moreau's daughter and a young Dr. Frankenstein? Yes, please!

What do you think of our choices?