Happy book birthday to SALVAGE!

We're so excited here at Friday the Thirteeners because today is the publication day for Alexandra Duncan's debut, SALVAGE! Here's a little about this sci-fi feminist book, which explores choice, agency, rebellion, and family:

Ava, a teenage girl living aboard the male-dominated, conservative deep space merchant ship Parastrata, faces betrayal, banishment, and death. Taking her fate into her own hands, she flees to the Gyre, a floating continent of garbage and scrap in the Pacific Ocean. This is a sweeping and harrowing novel about a girl who can't read or write or even withstand the forces of gravity. What choices will she make? How will she build a future on an earth ravaged by climate change?

SALVAGE was named a 2014 Indies Introduce Pick by the American Booksellers Association, and will appeal to fans of Margaret Atwood and Beth Revis.

Kirkus Reviews said "Duncan's settings and diction are vivid," and that "haunting, colorful environments distinguish this debut novel about a girl fighting for survival in the far future."

Feminism, family, and rebellion, all set in a thrilling sci-fi novel? We're absolutely sold!

Congratulations, Alexa! We're so proud of you and can't wait for everyone to read your amazing book!

SALVAGE is available from HarperCollins' Greenwillow Books, and if you'd like to pick up a copy (which we highly advise!) you can purchase from the following places:

Malaprop's

Spellbound

Barnes & Noble

Indiebound 

Amazon 

Book Depository

And here's more about Alexandra, our friend and author of the fabulous SALVAGE:

Alexandra Duncan is a writer and librarian. Her short fiction has been published in several Year's Best

Photo by Kristi Hedberg

Science Fiction & Fantasy anthologies and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Her first novel, Salvage, is available now from Greenwillow Books. She loves anything that gets her hands dirty—pie-baking, leatherworking, gardening, drawing, and rolling sushi. Alexandra lives with her husband and two monstrous, furry cats in the mountains of Western North Carolina. You can find out more about her at alexandra-duncan.com.

Alexandra Duncan Takes the Truth

I have a lot of guilt. It comes with being raised Protestant. So when I tell you about my guilty pleasures, you should know that I actually feel guilty about these things. Sometimes. (Okay, most of the time). It isn't just a turn of phrase.

Guilty pleasure #1: chocolate fruit

I will eat all kinds of chocolate fruit, but this is the kind I snack on most often.  ------------->

I tried to swear it off this summer, because chocolate is not good for you when consumed in great quantities, but I can usually talk myself into getting some anyway. Well, you need to buy some so you can take a picture of it for this blog post, I told myself earlier today before tearing into the package. You can't just go take a picture of it on the grocery store shelf. You don't want to be the weirdo in the deli taking pictures of sweets, do you? Point taken, brain. No, I do not.

Guilty pleasure #2: reality television

I'm in love with Project Runway and Face Off, which involves makeup artists constructing fantastical creatures. My husband will actually watch the second show with me, because it sometimes involves monsters.

The one show I've been really obsessed with lately, though, is Fatal Attractions on Animal Planet. It's all about people who are killed or mauled by their exotic pets. I'm not talking about hedgehogs or iguanas, although both of those can give you a nasty case of salmonella. Most of the people on the show seem to think they have a special relationship with their Bengal tiger or cobra that will prevent the animal from striking when they aren't looking.

Obviously, this is not how things play out. Given the number of times my housecat has attacked my feet in the middle of the night, I don't know how anyone could think things would go differently with a tiger.

Why do I like this show so much? Probably because when I was a kid, one of the stories I would always beg my mom to tell was the one about the teenager who broke into the Washington Zoo, stole a Gaboon viper, took it on a city bus, and then (after it bit him, naturally) had to be treated with all of the rattlesnake antivenin on the entire Eastern seaboard before stumbling back from the brink of death. She is a nurse, and was on duty when the paramedics brought him into the hospital. Her account was even more entertainingly weird than this New York Times article.

This is the show I watch to unwind in the evening. Sometimes I even fall asleep to stories about people being trampled by buffalo, partly because being raised by a nurse warps your brain a little bit and partly because I'm so tired in the evening. Which leads me to my third guilty pleasure. . .

Guilty pleasure #3: falling asleep on the couch

I have a lovely, comfortable bed. I sleep much better in it than I do on the couch. I'm much less likely to be sat up on by cats or wake up with a crick in my neck. And yet, there's something inexplicably wonderful about a couch nap.

Do you have a guilty pleasure? Tell us about it and you'll be entered to win an ARC of my book Salvage, coming April 1st! (No kidding.)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

ETA: Our contest winner is Xander! Xander, we've sent you an e-mail about how to claim your ARC.
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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, Facebook, and her web site.

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?

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey , the world's leading questionnaire tool.

*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?

Alexandra Duncan Takes the Truth!

Today is the day when I offend everyone. I’m answering the following Truth, Be honest: have you read Fifty Shades of Grey? (and thoughts on New Adult/sexy YA/or whatever)

Short answer: yes, I have read Fifty Shades of Grey. Sort of. I mean, I read the first three chapters and skimmed the rest. That counts as reading, right?

Let's rewind about thirteen months. Late last summer, the director of the public library where I work asked my boss to read Fifty Shades to help decide whether we should carry it in the library. There weren't a lot of critical reviews available at that point, which is one of the main ways we decide which books to carry, but we were getting flooded with requests for "that sex book. You know the one." *significant look*

After about ten minutes of skimming, I found my boss sitting in the workroom with this look on her face. . . .

She looked up at me. “I can’t do this. Will you read it?”

How could I resist? Clearly, from her expression, there was something magnificently horrifying happening between the pages. I had to know what had brought that look to her face. I took the book home and managed to stop giggling like a 12-year-old long enough to crack open the cover.

In the end, I couldn't do it either. I stopped reading and started skimming around the time Bella and Edw. . . I mean, Anastasia and Christian have an extraordinarily awkward conversation (that was maybe supposed to be sexy?) at a hardware store. To me, the steamy scenes were just. . . kind of squicky.* It was not my cup of tea.

This Truth has me thinking about how we write about sex in Young Adult literature versus how it’s portrayed in New Adult like Fifty Shades. Granted, not all New Adult is straight-up erotica. Take the insanely talented Gayle Forman's novels, for example, or Fangirl, by Rainbow Rowell, which I am dying to read. But Fifty Shades has brought erotica to the forefront of New Adult, and because of that, people are starting to think of N.A. as fundamentally characterized by cover-to-cover graphic sex.

In Y.A., however, sex is an incredibly touchy subject. If you don’t believe me, read this wonderful blog post by Beth Revis on a librarian’s response to learning one of her books contained sex, or take a look at the ALA’s yearly list of banned books. "Sexually explicit material" is the number one reason why books are banned or libraries are challenged for stocking them.

Source: American Library Association

On one hand, I get it. Adults want to protect children from situations and ideas they’re not ready to handle. I struggled with how to portray sex in Salvage, which deals in part with sexual relationships and pregnancy. As a librarian, would I feel comfortable recommending my own book to teen readers and their parents? Would I be okay with my fifteen year-old sister reading this? On the other hand, teenagers are surrounded by sexual content in daily life. It’s on TV and in movies. It’s in advertisements. It’s in music. It’s a topic of discussion on the school bus. It’s everywhere.

Sometimes we adults also forget that our teenage years were the time when we first fell in love, started dating, and became curious about sex and sexuality. Some of us even began having sex when we were in high school. If we’re writing honestly about teenage life and the process of becoming an adult, sex is a legitimate subject. For those teens who are sexually active, portraying sex in Y.A. accurately reflects their experience and gives adults a way to talk with teens about how to protect their hearts and their bodies. For those who aren’t, books are a safe place where teens can explore the idea of sex without becoming sexually active. It’s an opportunity to start a conversation about what is and what isn’t healthy in a relationship.

My personal philosophy about writing sex in Y.A. is that above all, it should be realistic. By that, I don’t mean I think everyone should be writing really extensive, detailed sex scenes. I mean that when it comes to talking about sex for a teenage audience, I don’t want to write the kind of unrealistic fantasy sex I’ve seen in Fifty Shades and other New Adult erotica. If I’m going to write about sex, I want to convey the combination of love, lust, confusion, anxiety, pleasure, and discomfort that go along with a real person’s first sexual experiences. I want to look at the dangers and the joys. I want to give teens the information they need to take care of themselves.

I think we owe teens honesty about this experience that’s looming large in their futures and imaginations. We owe it to them not to add to the misinformation they’re likely getting from locker room gossip and rumors on the bus. (Just to refute a few things I heard when I was fifteen - Yes, you can get pregnant the first time! No, taking monthly oral contraceptives is not the same as getting an abortion. Yes, sex can be great, but it doesn’t guarantee true love.) Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying every Y.A. book should deal with sex. Sometimes I just want to read about slaying dragons and things blowing up without the complication of a romantic relationship. But when we Y.A. writers do tackle this difficult subject, we need to do it with maturity, care, and awareness of our audience.

*One word: tampons
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Alexandra Duncan is a writer and librarian (plus amateur photographer, crochet enthusiast, cinemaphile, and, or course, book fiend). She holds a B.A. in Creative Writing from the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and has been a frequent contributor to The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. She loves anything that gets her hands dirty – pie-baking, leatherworking, gardening, drawing, and rolling sushi, to name a few.Her first novel, Salvage, is due to be released by Greenwillow Books/Harper Collins April 1, 2014. You can find her online at Twitter, Goodreads, and her web site.

SALVAGE Cover Reveal + ARC Giveaway

Three exciting things are happening in this post today!

1) We're revealing the final cover and release date of Alexandra Duncan's Salvage (which, by the way, has just been selected as part of the American Booksellers Association Indies Introduce Spring promotion. Woo hoo!) This past June, the preliminary cover design came out on EpicReads, but Greenwillow Books has made some tweaks that make it even better.

TA-DA!

And it's coming April 1, 2014! A little more about the book,

Ava, a teenage girl living aboard the male-dominated deep space merchant ship Parastrata, faces betrayal, banishment, and death. Taking her fate into her own hands, she flees to the Gyre, a floating continent of garbage and scrap in the Pacific Ocean, in this thrilling, surprising, and thought-provoking debut novel that will appeal to fans of Across the Universe, by Beth Revis, and The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood.

2) Alexandra's new web site, www.alexandra-duncan.com, is going live! You can check there for updates about Salvage, events, and other news.

3) To celebrate both of these things, we're giving away an ARC of Salvage. Use the widget below to enter!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Alexandra Duncan Takes the Dare

After my last dare, fellow Thirteener Natalie Whipple dubbed me the Nerd Queen and dared me to make a crown out of action figures . . .

Now, I don't know if I'm the Nerd Queen herself, exactly. There are probably people with more Star Wars t-shirts and hours logged playing D&D than me, but I could definitely be some kind of Nerd Duchess or lady-in-waiting. And no way am I going to pass up an opportunity to use my glue gun. So of course I took Natalie up on her dare. 

How does one make a nerd crown, exactly?

Step 1: Assemble your nerd crown components.

Pictured here: two mini-lightsaber key chains (they light up, you guys!), yarn, a hair band, disembodied dragon head, little red ninja dude, the tiger from Kung-Fu Panda, my glue gun, two mini skateboards, a Hot Wheels car, a wind-up robot, and a My Little Pony. Most of these things came from the toy bin at my local Goodwill outlet, since I don't have any small nieces and nephew or children of my own. (Yes, Goodwill will sell you a disembodied dragon head.)

I didn't end up using everything, because some of it was too heavy and I ran out of room, but I'm sure I can find something to do with that My Little Pony. Maybe glue it to one of the skateboards?

Step 2:Wrap the headband with yarn to increase the surface area and stick-ability of the hot glue.


Step 3: Attach disembodied dragon head. Obviously, this is the most important part.


Step 4: Attach fake lightsabers.


Step 5: Ice your finger after you accidentally get hot glue on it and develop a really painful blister.


Step 6: Add little red ninja dude. (Or maybe he's a football guy? I don't know.)


Step 7: Add awesome little blue robot.


Step 8: Go eat an ice cream sandwich while the hot glue cools and dries. Ice cream sandwiches are good for burned fingers.


And now, ladies and gentlemen, the final product. Drumroll, please. . .

 TA-DA! Nerd crown acheived!

The Nerd Duchess bids you adieu. Check back next week to see what the marvelous Erin Bowman has in store for us!
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Alexandra Duncan is a writer and librarian (plus amateur photographer, crochet enthusiast, cinemaphile, and, or course, book fiend). She holds a B.A. in Creative Writing from the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and has been a frequent contributor to The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. She loves anything that gets her hands dirty – pie-baking, leatherworking, gardening, drawing, and rolling sushi, to name a few.Her first novel, Salvage, is due to be released by Greenwillow Books/Harper Collins in April 2014. You can find her online at Twitter, Goodreads, and her personal blog.

Alexandra Duncan Takes the Truth

Long, long ago, in small town far, far away, I was an obsessive Star Wars nerd.*

I'm telling you this because Megan Shepherd dared one of us to talk about a time we wrote a fan letter to an author, and while I don't have any memory of writing to an author, I have a REALLY embarrassing story about writing a fan letter to George Lucas (creator of Star Wars) when I was twelve.

My Star Wars infatuation started sometime during sixth grade. My best friend was sleeping over at my house, so my mother sent us to the video store with $3 to pick out a movie to watch. We chose Return of the Jedi, completely unaware that it was the third movie of the Star Wars trilogy. We were OBSESSED. This was the greatest movie EVER. We had no idea why that guy was frozen in metal, but there was a GIRL trying to rescue him, and then there was a guy with psychokinetic powers, and there was an evil empire and a DEATH STAR. A Death Star, you guys!

We watched Return of the Jedi over and over again, possibly even on successive sleepover weekends, until my mom clued us in. "You know, there ARE other Star Wars movies."

This was an even greater revelation than discovering Return of the Jedi. We watched all the movies and spread the good news about the existence of Star Wars among our friends. Watching Star Wars during sleepovers became mandatory. By the beginning of seventh grade, we had formed a fan club called LECHY. (This stood for Leia, Ewoks, Chewy, Han, Yoda - all characters the founding members had adopted as their aliases for the purposes of anonymous note-writing.)

My 6th grade yearbook photo

Let me stop right here and explain that this is even worse than it sounds. NO ONE else in seventh grade was interested in Star Wars. This was in the mid-nineties, several years before anyone had even heard of the Star Wars prequels George Lucas went on to make. All self-respecting seventh-graders feigned disinterest in everything - except possibly Green Day - in an attempt to claw their way to a level of social acceptance that would allow them to avoid being peed on or having gum thrown in their hair during the long bus ride home. Liking Star Wars and creating a FAN CLUB surrounding said movie franchise? That was the absolute nadir of dorkiness.

By this point, I was so overwhelmed with Star Wars fever, that not only was I trying to develop telekinetic powers, making Ewok costumes for my stuffed bears, and growing my hair out to look like Princess Leia's,** I was inspired to write a letter to George Lucas. In pink, sparkly pen.

I don't have the letter anymore, for obvious reasons, but from what I remember, it went something like this,

Dear George Lucas,
Hi! My name is Alexa and my friends and I love Star Wars SO MUCH! We even made up a fan club that is called LECHY for Leia, Ewoks, Chewy, Han, Yoda! Let me gush on about the mechanics of our fan club and how much I love your movies for TWO ENTIRE PAGES!!!

The trouble was, I didn't have George Lucas's address. And while the Internet existed, we didn't have it at home and we were only supposed to use the computers at school for homework assignments. So, I found the address for 20th Century Fox on the back cover of my Return of the Jedi VHS tape, and sent it to George Lucas, c/o 20th Century Fox.

I know what you're thinking. There's no way that letter ever got anywhere near George Lucas. There's no way I ever got a response.

But you're wrong. Some kindhearted person passed it on to someone else at Lucasfilm, and then on to whichever department handles fan mail. Somewhere around five months after I sent my letter, I got a response from someone who was probably an administrative assistant at Lucasfilm, thanking me for my enthusiasm and gently informing me that I could send fan mail to them directly (address provided). She also slipped several Star Wars bookmarks in with her response, one of which was a hologram bookmark, the coolest thing ever for a nerdy kid when printed holograms were a new thing.

I know Star Wars is a money-making megalith, and we're not even going to talk about the prequels or the fact that HAN SHOOTS FIRST, but I'll never forget those bookmarks or that response, and how it made me feel like someone cared about me. Someone out there took the time to make sure my letter got through, and then someone else did me the small but immeasurable kindness of writing back. Sometimes little moments like that are enough to get a dorky kid with glasses and a bad haircut through the worst years of middle school.

I still have the bookmarks. I keep them in the top drawer of my writing desk.

* Actually, the last part of that statement is still true.
** A significant impediment to having Princess Leia hair: your mother cutting your bangs with toenail scissors.
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Alexandra Duncan is a writer and librarian (plus amateur photographer, crochet enthusiast, cinemaphile, and, or course, book fiend). She holds a B.A. in Creative Writing from the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and has been a frequent contributor to The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. She loves anything that gets her hands dirty – pie-baking, leatherworking, gardening, drawing, and rolling sushi, to name a few.Her first novel, Salvage, is due to be released by Greenwillow Books/Harper Collins in Winter 2014. You can find her online at Twitter, Goodreads, and her personal blog.

Alexandra Duncan Takes the Truth

"How do you do it?"

Every writer gets this question at some point, and every writer's answer is going to be different. I thought this week might be a good time to take this truth, since my life is particularly hectic right now. Between relatives visiting, the height of the summer reading season at the library where I work, and car trouble, it hasn't been easy to squeeze in enough writing time lately. Want to know my deep, dark, dysfunctional secrets about time management, pets, and laundry? Watch on. . .






Check in again this coming Tuesday for guest post by Crissa-Jean Chappell. If you want to leave a truth or dare for her, click here.

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Alexandra Duncan is a Young Adult writer and librarian. Her first novel, Salvage, is due to be released by Greenwillow Books/Harper Collins in Fall 2013. You can find her online at Twitter, Goodreads, and her personal blog.

Alexandra Duncan Takes the Dare + Short Story Winners

I promise to get around to embarrassing myself in a minute, but first, some important business: the winners of our short story contest. (Drumroll, please!)

The grand prize goes to. . . Leigh!

And our runners-up are. . . Silverpool and Christina.

Congratulations, guys! Thank you so much for playing. E-mail us at fridaythethirteeners[at]gmail[dot]com to claim your prizes.

And now, on to the humiliation. . .

The last time I played Truth or Dare was at my friend Nicole's birthday party during my senior year of high school. Most of our truths involved boys, and I don't think there was a single dare in the mix. What had happened to the halcyon days of mixing together weird things from the fridge and then making each other eat them? Or sneaking out of the house to jump on the trampoline at midnight? So, when I heard about the idea of the Thirteeners, I knew immediately I had to play, and I knew I wanted to start with a really good dare.


Amy Conroy sent in a perfect one:


Read a bit of a story from when you were younger (child to teenager, the youngest piece that you can find).

I'm not sure about the wisdom of letting my 11 year-old self's writing out into the world when I'm trying to have a career convincing people to read the things I write now, but it wouldn't be a dare if it didn't hurt a little, right?

Thanks for the awesome dare, Amy. Since this is my first time playing, you get to choose a prize - a $13 gift certificate or a copy of Booklife, by Jeff Vandermeer (my favorite guide to the writing life). E-mail me at fridaythethirteeners[at]gmail[dot]come and let me know which you'd like.


Thanks again for playing! Check back with us this coming Friday, May 4th, for a post by the lovely and talented Mindy McGinnis.
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Alexandra Duncan is a writer and librarian. Her first novel, Salvage, is due to be released by Greenwillow Books/Harper Collins in Fall 2013. You can find her online at Twitter, Goodreads, and her personal blog.

Introducing our Fourth Mystery Author!

Ahem, drumroll please...

We Friday the Thirteeners are very very very excited to introduce our fourth Mystery Author:

Alexandra Duncan

Alexandra is a librarian by day and writer by night. Her debut novel, SALVAGE, is coming in 2013 from Greenwillow/HarperCollins.

SALVAGE is young adult science fiction with a feminist slant. Ava, sixteen, has spent her whole life aboard the ship Parastrata, where polygamy, hard labor, and illiteracy are the norm. When she receives the news that she is to be married, she holds out hope that her childhood friend, Luck, will be her future husband. But what starts as an innocent mistake causes Ava’s people to turn against her, and she must run for her life. She barely escapes to Earth, where she finds refuge in a floating city of trash and debris. India has become the heart of this future world, yet life beyond the country’s borders and on its social fringes is rife with violence and danger. Can Ava find a way to survive outside the insular world of her youth? Will she ever see Luck again? And is what she has been told about her own past the whole truth?

Sounds so cool! We're sure you can't wait to read it, just like us. You can also connect to Alexandra on her blog or Twitter.

Alexandra will be tackling her first Truth or Dare on Tuesday, May 1. We know you are dying to get to know Alexandra, and there's no better way than a little soul-searching public humiliation. So leave Alexandra a special truth or dare on our Truth or Dare page.