Thursday, April 17, 2008

Check my pulse


I know, I know--I'm late posting this month.
There's a reason for that. And believe it or not, it isn't that I just turned in my critical thesis for my MFA program (yay!), completed a session teaching at Media Bistro (sniff), and started a new session THE NEXT NIGHT (eep).
Although, a girl does get tired.

No, actually, the reason that I have been insanely busy over the past few weeks is due to a quintessential good news/bad news situation.

The good news:
I'm writing a new series for your favorite publisher, Simon Pulse!
(Okay, I guess technically that qualifies as *great* news).
The bad news:
It's launching spring '09. Which means that the first draft manuscript of the first book is due in about five minutes.

The series takes place at posh private school Bradford Academy in the uber-ritzy Philadelphia Main Line, and it's told entirely in blog format. There will also be a huge web component to the series. All of which means it's great that I've been able to hone my blogging skills right here with the other Ro Com authors.

Right now we've got three books in the series signed up, and the schedule is insane. But I must say that it hurts so good.
Believe it or not, it's always been my dream to write an ongoing YA series. Seriously--I was the freak at summer camp that hated things like kickball or instructional swim, and spent as much time as possible curled up under a tree with several installments of Sweet Valley High. I thought I'd hit the big time when I was given the chance, as an editor, to work on Francine Pascal's Fearless series. But as it turns out, life just gets better and better.

Some other series from my fading youth that I gobbled up like M&M's:
-The Girls of Canby Hall
-The Babysitters Club
-The Sweet Dreams collection
-Anything Christopher Pike (I know, not technically a series, but category publishing at its best).

These days, there are so many amazing series out there: Private, Gossip Girl, Fearless, Drama, Body of Evidence, The Clique, The A List, The Show, and, of course, everyone's favorite line, the Simon Pulse Ro Coms! I'm so excited to be contributing to my very favorite aspect of YA publishing!

What series do or did YOU read, past or present?

8 comments:

P.J. Ruditis said...

Hmm. The blog ate my comment. Let's try this again...

Thanks for including my series in that amazing list!

I was also a huge fan of Christopher Pike. HUGE. I still have some of his books (on the same shelf as the Dark Forces series books I equally loved). WEEKEND and CHAIN LETTER were the best!
Is it any wonder we both wound up working on the BUFFY and CHARMED book lines, Micol?

Congrats on the new series!

Jennifer Echols said...

Micol, what awesome news!

Nancy Drew is now in its third life, if I'm counting correctly. I outgrew her just before her second incarnation. So in the early 1980s I was reading her first go-round from the 1950s or so. My library had maybe 80 hardbacks, the entire series. Every time I went there I'd check out six and arrange them in order according to how interesting the first illustration was inside.

Micol Ostow said...

Thanks guys!
Paul, much in the way the Slayer is Chosen to protect the world against the vampires, I was Chosen to work on Buffy books.

And Nancy Drew--how could I forget? I had the pleasure of working on "new" Nancy at S&S and classic Nancy at Grosset. See--I wasn't kidding: I heart series!

Aimee Friedman said...

Congrats, Micol! That sounds AMAZING!

OMG, my childhood/adolescence would have been utterly BLEAK without The Baby-Sitters Club (I was a total combination of Stacey and Mary Ann), Sweet Valley High, Sweet Valley Twins, R.L. Stine's Fear Street, ALL the Christopher Pike books, all the V.C. Andrews books, and, my all-time favorite but less sassy series, THE ALL OF A KIND FAMILY books by Sidney Taylor. So cozy and fun..

I can't wait to read your series when it launches. :)

Aimee Friedman said...

Sorry, Sydney Taylor...I have Friday brain.

Nicole Burnham said...

WOW--the new series sounds fantastic! You'll have to post here when you finalize the titles and release dates :)

For me, I was really big into Trixie Belden as a kid. I *loved* that she was so strong and independent, and the relationship between Trixie and Jim was fun to read. I still have sixty-some Trixies. Maybe seventy. I read them all multiple times.

Wendy Toliver said...

GREAT news! :)

Steph said...

Oo that's awesome news!! Good luck!

Series I read (past tense):
Nancy Drew, Baby Sitters Club, Fearless, and Gossip Girl.

Series I read now: Jessica Darling, Twilight, Ro-Com (TOTAL junkie), It Girl, Private, Gemma Doyle, Uglies...

:) Taste is quite eclectic, lol.

Good luck, once again =]