Reader Girls Blog

Uses for Boys  by Erica Lorraine Scheidt YA contemporary*Paperback & e-book, 240 pages Expected publication: January 15th 2013 by St Martin’s Press Goodreads Purchase:  Amazon Anna remembers a time before boys, when she was little and everything made sense. When she and her mom were a family, just the two of them against the world. But now her mom is gone most of the time, chasing the next marriage, bringing home the next stepfather. Anna is left on her own—until she discovers that she can make boys her family. From Desmond to Joey, Todd to Sam, Anna learns that if you give boys what they want, you can get what you need. But the price is high—the other kids make fun of her; the girls call her a slut. Anna's new friend, Toy, seems to have found a way around the loneliness, but Toy has her own secrets that even Anna can't know. Then comes Sam. When Anna actually meets a boy who is more than just useful, whose family eats dinner together, laughs, and te

GUEST POST: Retro Is The New New Thing      Things have loosened way up in publishing since I wrote DEATH TURNS A TRICK, and what a relief for female readers! In 1 982, when it was first published, it was pretty daring—it had a hookers’ union in it, a certain amount of swearing, and a smart-mouthed female lawyer. Guess what the daring part was? Right—the mouth on that female mouthpiece, scrappy   lawyer Rebecca Schwartz. In DEATH TURNS A TRICK, Rebecca holds an impromptu press conference to make her client’s case in the public arena. An editor  (female, I’m horribly afraid) told me I had to cut the scene because that would be “unprofessional”. Since when, I argued, is a lawyer shooting off her mouth considered unprofessional? Isn’t that her job? I won, but even then I thought it curious that a woman editor was still so timid about female assertion. And now? Ha! Look at the portrayal of women on DAMAGES. Now female lawyers can not only be assertive, they can even be