The Secret Adventures of WriterGirl

Current Theme Song (aka what's playing on my ipod right now): Wrongful Blame by James Horner [Spitfire Grill soundtrack].





The idea of Monday's Muse is to introduce you to unknown, forgotten, or overlooked fiction that has been lost from regular radar. I am WriterGirl. I am in the business of saving lives, one book at a time.

What I do is go to one of several places, narrow it down to a YA field and type in a random word, any word that comes to mind. I then take a sampling of some I have never heard of before, or only vaguely heard of (and hopefully you as well). No infringement is intended for any description I take for the books. It's purely for promotional reasons. I will try and cover as many genres as possible that are fitting for the random word. Simple but it really uncovers some incredible gems. I will be doing this every other Monday. If there are any words you want to prompt me with, go ahead and fire away.

Wake (/Fade/Gone) by Lisa McMann.

Ever since she was eight years old, high school student Janie Hannagan has been uncontrollably drawn into other people's dreams, but it is not until she befriends an elderly nursing home patient and becomes involved with an enigmatic fellow-student that she discovers her true power.








The Wild Things by Dave Eggers.

During a fight at home, young Max flees and runs away into the woods. He finds a boat there, jumps in, and ends up on the open sea, destination unknown. He lands on the island of the Wild Things, and soon he becomes their king. But things get complicatedwhen Max realizes that the Wild Things want as much from him as he wants from them. Based loosely on the storybook by Maurice Sendak and the screenplay co-written with Spike Jonze.







The Other Wind (Earthsea series #6) by Ursula Le Guin.

Haunted by dreams of the dead who seek to invade Earthsea through him, the sorcerer Alder enlists the aid of Ged, a former Archmage, who advises him to find the holiest place in the world, which holds the key to preserving Earthsea.










Dreamhunter (& Dreamquake) by Elizabeth Knox.

In a world where select people can enter "The Place" and find dreams of every kind to share with others for a fee, a fifteen-year-old girl is training to be a dreamhunter when her father disappears, leaving her to carry on his mysterious mission.








White Cat (Curse Workers trilogy) by Holly Black.

Cassel Sharpe comes from a family of criminals and "curse workers," people who practice magic illegally and can alter others' luck or memories with a single touch. Cassel, who doesn't seem to have inherited his family's talents, tries very hard to convince his private-school classmates that he's just a regular guy. But he's haunted by a dirty secret from his past, and a white cat that keeps appearing in his nightmares.  (description by Ellen Foreman).







Alphabet of Dreams by Susan Fletcher.

Fourteen-year-old Mitra, of royal Persian lineage, and her five-year-old brother Babak, whose dreams foretell the future, flee for their lives in the company of the magus Melchoir and two other Zoroastrian priests, traveling through Persia as they follow star signs leading to a newly-born king in Bethlehem.









Dreamrider by Barry Jonsberg.

Harangued by his father about his weight and bullied in all the many schools he has attended, teenaged Michael finds some comfort in his ability to experience "lucid" dreaming but then starts to notice that the things that happen in his dreams are starting to occur in the real world as well.









Sleeper Code by Tom Sniegoski.

Just when he has met a beautiful girl and his outlook is improving, sixteen-year-old narcoleptic Tom Lovett begins to suspect that his dreams and hallucinations of killing people may be something more real and terrifying.









Union Spark by Andy Marino.

Fifteen-year-old Mistletoe lives in the sub-canopy zone amid poverty and outdated technology, but when she meets Ambrose Truax, the privileged sixteen-year-old heir to the Unison empire and they discover they share a sinister link, they begin a frightening journey into the uncharted territory of the Unison 3.0 upgrade.








 Witch Dreams by Vivian Vande Velde.

Sixteen-year-old Nyssa uses her ability to see into people's dreams to discover who murdered her parents six years ago.










The Red Thread by Rod Townley.

Bothered by insomnia, nightmares, and claustrophobia, sixteen-year-old Dana sees a therapist who hypnotizes her into remembering past lives, involving her in an age-old mystery and causing her to question what kind of person she is.










On Thin Ice by Jamie Bastedo.

Set in Canada's far north, this book is a fascinating blend of both fact and fiction. Sixteen year old Ashley, who's from Inuit and French Canadian descent, is haunted by strange, ominous dreams. When a classmate's mangled body is found outside of her Arctic town, Ashley's dreams take on a frightening twist. Plunged into the mysterious underworld of ancient Inuit legends, Ashley strives to understand her changing world.







The Dream Merchant by Isabel Hoving.

Having been hired by a mysterious corporation called Gippart, twelve-year-old Josh--along with two friends and the ghost of his dead twin sister--finds himself trapped in "umaya," a place between dreams, time, and reality.











Sleepless by Cyn Balog.

Eron, a supernatural being known as a Sandman whose purpose is to seduce humans to sleep, falls in love with a sad teenaged girl who is mourning her boyfriend's death.