I am so excited and honored to be part of the Hyperion Blog Tour for TIME BETWEEN US, the debut young adult contemporary by Tamara Ireland Stone.

Today, you will find a fantastic interview with the lovely Tamara Ireland Stone herself, a fun playlist/soundtrack "created by" the the book's two main characters, as well as a generous giveaway of a finished copy of TIME BETWEEN US for one lucky reader! Keep reading for all the goodies!

---

1. What made you choose 1995 and 2012 as the featured time periods in Time Between Us?

I initially knew my time traveler would be from present day San Francisco. I planned to make him seventeen, so when I didt the math, that set his birthday in 1995.

I wanted Anna to be sixteen, but from a completely different city. In 1995, I happened to be living in Evanston, Illinois. The idea of going back there in my mind and re-experiencing it was so intriguing.

When I put those two dates and locations together, it just felt right. How interesting to think about how much has changed between 1995 and 2012! The world is so different today than it was only seventeen years ago, when the Internet and cell phones were in their infancy. And those two cities—San Francisco, California and Evanston, Illinois—were two beautiful, but very diverse settings I knew firsthand. It all clicked.

2. What was the most interesting point of research for your story?

I’ve always been drawn to time travel stories. As a kid I loved everything from A Wrinkle in Time to Back to the Future, and today, I’m find myself on the edge of my seat for movies like Source Code and Looper. I’ve been fascinated by how books and movies approach time travel differently, but I’d never thought to research it until I started writing this book,

And then I found myself drawn to it in a different way. I spent many late nights reading about string theory and the many worlds theory and the fourth dimension. The research sometimes made my brain hurt, but I found myself totally fascinated by what the world’s biggest thinkers had to say about the possibility of time travel.

I also realized how much I loved research. In addition to time travel theories, I got to learn more about migraines and cross-country running and rock climbing technique. I got to research concerts around the world and 90s hairstyles. I found the research to be as much fun as the writing.

3. Is there a character you're most or least similar to? What are the similarities/differences?

Anna Greene and I are a lot alike: Driven, goal setters, big dreamers, overachievers. But she is a lot more confident and decisive than I was at that age. I think of Anna as the 16-year-old girl I wish I had been, and the 16-year-old girl I hope my daughter grows up to be.

There’s also a lot of me in Bennett. He feels unsettled in his life, and because my family moved a lot when I was growing up, I used to feel that way a lot as a teen.

I had a lot of introspective moments while writing this book. Today, I have the roots that Bennett wanted and Anna’s confidence. But like every character’s evolution, there was a journey involved in getting there.

4. What message do you hope readers take from Time Between Us?

On the surface, this looks like a fun escapism story about time travel, world travel, and romance. But there’s a lot more going on below the surface and I really hope readers experience that too.

I’m so proud of Anna. She starts out strong, and after a series of events—uplifting, heartbreaking, and life changing—she ends up even stronger. I wanted readers to feel empowered by her story. We each make choices that affect our future selves every day, and whether those choices turn out to be right or wrong, there's great power and the fact that they’re ours. Ultimately, this is a story about choosing your path and living without regrets.

5. If you could travel back in time, where would you go, who would you see, and what would you do?

The inspiration for this story came from something I said to my husband. I wished I could go back in time to see concerts I missed. How cool would it be to see Nirvana live, or see Green Day when they were playing in small clubs in the early 90s? I don’t need to go back and relive any part of my life, but going back for a few hours for some epic live music? That I’d do.

---

Since music is such a big part of Tamara's life, she created a playlist -or rather, a soundtrack- from the "viewpoint" of Bennett and Anna that spans 1991 through present-day. I must say, it's a pretty fabulous playlist, chock full of some of my personal favorites, from Green Day to Lifehouse to Incubus. Click to check out the Time Between Us Playlist/Soundtrack!

---

Enter to win a finished copy of TIME BETWEEN US!
(US/CA only, please!)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

---

Please check out Tamara Ireland Stone:

On the web: TamaraIrelandStone.com and TimeBetweenUs.com
On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tamarairelandstone
On Twitter: @tamaraistone

I am so excited to be part of the Tor Teen Blog Tour for THE BOOK OF THE NIGHT, the third and final installment in the Libyrinth Series by Pearl North.

Today, you will find a fantastic guest post from Pearl North herself on the importance of libraries in our culture, as well as a generous giveaway of a finished copy of THE BOOK OF THE NIGHT for three lucky readers! Keep reading for all the goodies!

Libraries: We Still Need Them! - A Guest Post by Pearl North

Thank you for having me on BlookGirl!

Do we still need Libraries? Well, obviously, since I wrote a whole trilogy of books centered around a library so vast that people sometimes get lost in it and never come out again, my answer is going to be yes.

But let me tell you why that's my answer. Sure, the internet is a terrific research tool, and it's much more convenient to search for what we want online, purchase it online, and then download our books to our ereaders and phones and notebook computers.'

Well, we can if we own a computer and an ereader and a phone. And of course, not everyone does.

But most libraries do. People with no other access to the internet depend on libraries for free internet access. And not every book is available online or in digital format and even if it were, people without money need access to books too. Probably more than the rest of us. And finally, sometimes you need a safe, quiet place to go for a little while.

So while print books may or may not continue to be vital to our society (it is true that print on paper is more durable than digital files), libraries will continue to be important for a whole host of reasons, including the ones I mentioned above.

Why do you think libraries are important, or aren't?

---

 Pearl North is the author of a trilogy of YA science fiction novels: Libyrinth, The Boy From Ilysies (a Norton Award Finalist), and The Book of the Night.

Libyrinth follows the story of Haly, a Libyrarian dedicated to preserving and protecting the knowledge passed down from the Ancients and stored in the endless maze of books known as the Libyrinth. But Haly has a secret: the books speak to her. When she is captured by the Singers, a group hostile to the Libyrinth who believe the written word to be evil, Haly learns that things are not at all as they seem. Can she mend the rift between the two groups before war destroys them all?

In The Boy from Ilysies, the Libyrinth is quickly running out of food, and the survival of the ancient edifice and those who serve it may depend on Po, a young man raised in the female dominant society of Ilysia. Po is having trouble adjusting to life in the egalitarian Libyrinth. Caught between his longings for acceptance and the Machiavellian tactics of his queen, Po is tricked into a crime that causes him to be cast out. He may return only if he retrieves the Lion's Bloom, an enormously powerful ancient artifact that may be the answer to all of the libyrinth’s problems. However, in the wrong hands, it could turn the world into a barren, lifeless ruin.

The Libyrinth trilogy concludes with The Book of the Night. The world of the Libyrinth has experienced a series of wrenching changes. Behind the mysteries of its shrouded past has always been the legendary Book of the Night. Sought for generations, both feared and revered, it is the key to this world of wonders. When Queen Thela of Ilysies imperils the very reality of the world, only the Book can heal what she has rent asunder. An epic journey through strange lands, a perilous encounter in a clockwork city, and the revelation of the truth beyond reality will lead Haly, Po, and their friends Clauda and Selene to a moment when their world will either be saved...or cease to exist.

A firm believer in human decency, Pearl North loves writing and reading about characters that transcend the limits of who they think they are and what they think is possible. She mentors graduate students in Seton Hill University’s Writing Popular Fiction MFA program, and writes in other genres under different names. A native and life-long resident of the Detroit area, she has never lived more than two miles from Woodward Avenue in her life.

Her books are available from Amazon (http://amzn.to/O6Tuoc) and fine booksellers everywhere. Or, you can borrow them from the library.

---

Add the books of the Libyrinth Series to your GoodReads Wish List:

 

---

Enter to win one of three finished copies of THE BOOK OF THE NIGHT!
(US/CA only, please!)

a Rafflecopter giveaway