The End of the World as We Know It
Author: Iva-Marie Palmer
Genre: YA Science Fiction
Release Date: July 17, 2012
Description:
The Breakfast Club meets The War of the Worlds in The End of the World as We Know It, the latest release from Alloy Entertainment (The Vampire Diaries, Pretty Little Liars, 666 Park Avenue, Gossip Girl)
They wanted to party like it was their last night on earth. They just might get their wish….
Meet the four most unlikely heroes ever:
Teena McAuley: Queen Bee, first-class problem solver, resident heartbreaker.
Leo Starnick: UFO conspirator, pizza delivery boy, all-around slacker.
Evan Brighton: Baseball all-star, extreme virgin, Teena-worshipper.
Sarabeth Lewis: Straight-A student, weekend hermit, enemy of the color pink.
When Teena locks Leo, Evan, and Sarabeth in the basement during her biggest party of the year, she doesn’t plan on getting trapped in the Loser Dungeon herself. She can barely imagine a night with these dweebs—let alone a lifetime. But when an alien invasion destroys their entire Midwestern suburb, it looks like these unlikely friends are the last people on earth. Now, it’s up to them to save the world….
My Top Ten Influential Books
I'm really excited to be on A Dream Within a Dream, not least of all because of I love your header cartoon, Stephanie, and I hope you have socks just like hers. (Thanks Iva! I have a couple of pairs like them too!)
I hope my list of influential reads is not too unorthodox, as I know there are some slightly weird things here. I'm influenced by so much that it's hard to choose, and I tried my best to represent all the reading that's influence me.
Bossypants by Tina Fey -- Yes, she's hilarious and seemingly can do it all but what really hit me in this book is what she says about writers for Saturday Night Live: How at some point, if you want to make it, you have to declare the thing done and put your work out there for the world. I know a few writers who are still tinkering with sentences in novels they finished years ago. And while we are fragile creatures, I think there's something to be said for the show business mentality of making sure the show goes on. So, and this goes for me, too, finish the first thing, put it out there and write the next thing, even if the first thing bombs (as many SNL sketches do.)
Haircuts of the Damned by Joe Meno -- Meno is a beautiful writer and this coming-of-age story really hits home because it's set in the area where I grew up, and where I set my book, The End of the World As We Know It. People don't usually write about where we're from, so to know a successful writer grew up in my own backyard and really owns it in his work is hugely inspiring.
The poems of e.e. cummings -- There's no one particular book or poem, but I remember discovering cummings' work while wandering around the stacks of my hometown library. To see what he does with words -- tearing them apart and binding them together in the most literal of senses -- shows that there really are no boundaries.
Man in the Moon by William Joyce -- William Joyce is a picture book author who I only recently started reading, thanks to my son. This story does everything in not many pages (and yes, with beautiful pictures). I'm just as transported as my son is when we read it. It's a magical reminder of the power books can have.
Sloppy Firsts and sequels (The Jessica Darling series) by Megan McCafferty -- Books I wish I wrote. Books I could gobble up again and again. I love that this series can be both hilarious and weighty all at once, and without resorting to any easy emotional tricks to feel that way. I only hope I one day can hit half the notes McCafferty did with this series.
Salem's Lot by Stephen King -- I ate this book alive when I read it, and I don't necessarily read a lot of King (mostly because I'm a chicken). Still, he's a huge influence to me because he's a reader first and that comes through in his writing. Only someone who values story and character can make 700+ pages fly by. I prize the idea of reading to be a good writer.
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte -- My husband claims I listed this one because (spoiler alert) I wish he had a crazy old wife in the attic, but instead he just has a tub of Star Wars guys. But seriously, this book is like a vision quest in a Gothic landscape of misery with a heroine who seems both armored and vulnerable at the same time. That kind of multilayeredness is no easy feat in writing.
MAD magazine -- Okay, technically not a book but as a kid, there was nothing I looked forward to as much as the new issue of MAD. I knew I would laugh before I even looked at the first page. Laughing is awesome. And while I don't know that I will write every book with the goal of laughter in mind, I think some of my truest writing comes from a place of wanting to overhear some chuckling to themselves as they read.
Are You There God, It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume -- The first book that got into my prepubescent head and felt like it was talking to me. Judy Blume has never lost touch with her inner adolescent, and my 12-year-old, brace-faced inner self has never stopped appreciating it.
Cookbooks (generally speaking, particularly those by Julia Child or those with pretty, pretty pictures) -- My mom was a great cook, but she wasn't much for writing. She was highly creative, though, in her cooking -- whether determining how to make something we'd had in a restaurant or taking a recipe from a book and making it her own -- and in all these other day-to-day ways that she would have insisted weren't creative or special at all. Cookbooks remind me of her and of the many ways a person can be creative -- that there's more than just commonly- thought-of creative endeavors like writing and painting, etc. Plus, looking at cookbooks makes it clear the many combinations there are for the same things, sort of like with words. Bringing something concrete to the table from a bunch of randomness embodies both the joy of creating and of enjoying your creations. Plus, and I harp on myself about this a lot, it's another reason to finish things: If you never serve the thing you make, people go hungry. And if you never try to get your written work out there, you might be denying people, too. So bon appetit and happy writing!
Iva-Marie Palmer is the author of The End of the World As We Know It, a sci-fi action comedy from Alloy Entertainment (creators of Pretty Little Liars, Gossip Girl, The Vampire Diaries). She would love for you to find her online to talk about writing, food, books or whatever floats your boat. She's on Twitter (@ivamarie), on Facebook (www.facebook.com/ ivamariebooks) and at her website (www.ivamariepalmer.com).
Thank you so much for stopping by the blog today and sharing your most influential books with us! I always love getting an inside peek into an author's mind and your list was definitely unique!
Author
of The End of the World as We Know It from Alloy Entertainment. It's
currently available as a NOOK exclusive from Barnes and Noble. Look for
it on Kindle and other e-readers on August 18.
Palmer lives in Los Angeles with her husband and son and lots of (filled) bookshelves.
For more information, check out her bio on Alloy Entertainment's official site and keep up with her at ivamariepalmer.com.
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