DIANA RODRIGUEZ WALLACH

It’s official! The final installment of my young adult series is on shelves now! Adios to All the Drama debuted last week, and I hope all of you Mariana fans will rush out to see how her saga ends. (Just a hint: Alex isn’t the only teen who will be visiting the Ruizes. Expect some major drama, romantic and otherwise.)

And if you liked Amor and Summer Secrets, Amigas and School Scandals, and Adios To All The Drama, please swing by Amazon and leave me a nice review. It would be much appreciated!

But without further delay, I’d like to introduce you all to another amazing young adult author in the Girlfriends Cyber Circuit!

Everyone please give a warm welcome to Eileen Cook! Her latest book, What Would Emma Do?, hit shelves on December 30th through Simon Pulse.

Here’s a little bit about her book to get you hooked:

Thou shalt not kiss thy best friend’s boyfriend…again…

There is no greater sin than kissing you best friend’s boyfriend. So when Emma breaks that golden rule, she knows she’s messed up big-time. Especially since she lives in the smallest town ever, where everyone knows everything about everyone else….and especially because she maybe kinda wants to do it again. Now her best friend isn’t speaking to her, her best guy friend is making things totally weird, and Emma is running full speed toward certain social disaster. This is so not the way senior year was supposed to go.

Time to pray for a minor miracle. Or maybe, just maybe, it’s time for Emma to stop trying to please everyone around her, and figure out what she wants for herself.

Here’s what Eileen had to say:

Q: In AMOR AND SUMMER SECRETS, Mariana discovers a hidden family secret. Are you a good secret keeper? Why or why not?

Eileen: I’m good at keeping secrets provided that no one questions me too much. I am a terrible liar. I blush, I stammer, stupid comments fly out of my mouth at a remarkable rate. This means I can never go into the international spy business. The only way I can get away with writing fiction is that I do so at home alone without anyone watching me come up with things.

Q: What is the favorite place you ever traveled to, and what was the coolest thing you saw/did there?

Eileen: I was lucky enough to live in Europe for a couple of years when my husband’s job moved us over there. We lived in downtown Brussels, Belgium so I have a soft spot for that place. We did a lot of travel when we were there, and my favorite place we went was Eygpt. Everything there was cool. You start seeing so many cool things that you have sensory overload. After about a week we would see a solid gold tomb covering and be all “meh, seen a lot of those- what else do you have?” I would advise staying away from anything with the local water. I ate a salad one day that must have been washed in local tap water. I won’t go into details, but let me say the outcome wasn’t pretty.

Ohh, Egypt. I’d love to visit there, despite the water story. Hehe.

Q: I often tell the story of how a psychic once predicted that I would go on to write children’s books. Have you ever visited a psychic? If so, did any predictions come true? If not, would you ever visit one? Why or why not?

Eileen: My first book, Unpredictable, is about a woman who pretends to be a psychic. I did a ton of research for that book including meeting with a skeptics group that showed me how it could be faked, and then I went to over a dozen different psychics. I haven’t had any “really out there” predictions that were true, but I know some people that have had some strange experiences. I’m not sure if psychics are true or not- but if you get a prediction you like, I say go for it.

Q: My character Mariana spends her summer in Puerto Rico connecting with her father’s heritage. Have you ever researched your family tree?

Eileen: My dad is a huge family history nut. He and my mom planned this elaborate trip back to Ireland so that he could connect with his roots. He spent a whole day trying to find the old family home. He stopped at a gas station to try to get directions and discovered that the house had been torn down to make room for the gas station. In our family photo album we have pictures of my mom and dad in front of the gas station with the gas station owner. Since my heritage is Irish, I would like to think I am somehow related to Bono of U2, but so far I haven’t been able to find a connection.

Q: Where were you when you found out that your book was going to be published?

Eileen: Is there a better feeling than hearing you’ll be published? I was at home sick from work. I was bundled up on the sofa watching bad daytime TV when my agent called. I had to celebrate with Dr. Phil until my husband got home. Thankfully since I was wearing my so-old-they-are-nearly see-through flannel jammies with no make up there are no pictures.

Thanks for having me on your site!

Thank you, Eileen! Now, everyone go out and buy books, lots and lots of books!