Blog Tour: Sarah MacLean!!

Okay, my next blog tour guest is Sarah MacLean, whose book The Season debuted on February 1!! I was lucky enough to read an ARC of this novel--I loved it it so much!!

Here’s a blurb about The Season:

Seventeen-year-old Lady Alexandra Stafford doesn't fit into the world of Regency London — she's strong-willed, sharp-tongued, and she absolutely loathes dress fittings. Unfortunately, her mother has been waiting for years for Alex to be old enough to take part in the social whirlwind of a London Season so she can be married off to someone safe, respectable, wealthy, and almost certainly boring. But Alex is much more interested in adventure than romance.

Between sumptuous balls, lavish dinner parties and country weekends, Alex, along with her two best friends, Ella and Vivi, manages to get entangled in her biggest scrape yet. When the Earl of Blackmoor is killed in a puzzling accident, Alex decides to help his son, the brooding and devilishly handsome Gavin, uncover the truth. It's a mystery brimming with espionage, murder, and suspicion. As she and Gavin grow closer, will Alex's heart be stolen in the process?

Romance and danger fill the air, as this year's Season begins!

Aaaaaand, a little about author Sarah MacLean:

Sarah MacLean is the author of THE SEASON, a YA novel coming in February 2009 from Scholastic. She grew up in Rhode Island, where she spent much of her free time bemoaning the fact that she was more than a century too late for own Season. Her unabashed addiction to historical fiction helped to earn her a degree in European History from Smith College before she moved to New York City to pursue a career in publishing. After receiving a Masters in Education from Harvard University, Sarah returned to New York, where she lives with her husband, their dog, and a ridiculously large collection of romance novels. She is currently working on a series of regency-set romances to be released in 2010 from Avon/HarperCollins. Check her out on the web at http://www.macleanspace.com.

You can visit your local bookstore, or go to Amazon HERE or IndieBound HERE to buy a copy of her book online!

And now, onto the vastly important 3 interview questions:

1--What was the spark of inspiration for this story? Tell us what event, or idea, or dream got this book started.

Alex, my main character, came first. She was standing on a dressmakers platform, being fitted for her first ball--the first time she'd be presented to London society. After that, it was just a matter of learning more about her--which wasn't hard, because she spent a whole lot of time nagging me until I wrote her out of my head.

2--What food did you looooove getting from the cafeteria at lunch in high school, and why? (or if you didn't eat cafeteria food, what was your favorite brown-bag lunch?)

I was a PB&J girl. It was the safest choice from my cafeteria. It came out of a jar...how much could the cafeteria workers screw it up?

3--What is your absolute favorite part of being a writer?

Gloria Steinem once said, "I do not like to write. I like to have written." That's so perfectly true. The best part of writing is going back and realizing that you've written something that makes sense, and that isn't half bad. The writing part is torture. :)

Thanks for coming to my blog, Sarah--and huuuge CONGRATS on the release!!!