Girl Friday!

Hello! I’m Lesley Livingston and I’ll be your Girl Friday here at THE NOVEL GIRLS!

Right. So. About me.

- I am Canadian (one of the two resident Canucks here at TNG!).

- I am a writer and an actor (you can call me ‘actress’ if you want—makes me no never mind...) who routinely performs Shakespeare for adoring hordes of high school students. I’ve played Lady Macbeth more times than I’ve had hot dinners.

- I grew up in Edmonton, Alberta and I wanted to be a jockey when I was a kid—to the point where I would climb up on barbed-wire fences and fling myself onto the backs of the feral horses that grazed in the fields around our cottage... Yeah. That never went well.

- I have the distressing potential to become a Future Crazy Cat Lady. Fortunately, I would be accompanied in this endeavour by my Future Crazy Cat Man and, insofar as neither of us really wants to see this happen, we tend to keep each other in check—and the feline population of the house at a steady three.

- For almost three years, I hosted weekly sci-fi/ fantasy late­-night movie-marathons on a nationally broadcast show called Spacebar: I played a character called the Waitron-9000, a sparkly holographic waitress with an encyclopaedic knowledge of obscure B-movie trivia. More recently, I am a contributor to the geek-tastic online magazine/nerd community Hardcore Nerdity—a place where I truly let my geek flag fly and get to interview some really cool folk at the same time (check it out—but only after your done here!)

- I love performing and writing for teens. When I was at the age that my audience is now, I was an unrepentant egghead (which I remain to this day and thankfully does not preclude a love of shoes and shiny things!). I was captivated by stories of mythology and folk lore, past civilizations, and legendary heroes. I’m a Celtic Mythology geek, especially when it comes to stories of the Otherworld, Faeries and King Arthur. Eventually, I just started to draw on all those elements from those tales that were so dear to me and began to write my own.

- I’ve been a writer and performer for as long as I care to remember, and I freely admit that its due to some kind of perverse stubborn streak. This is craziness, this business. We all know that. But it’s the kind of craziness that, some days, feels like driving with the top down straight into a thunderstorm, radio blasting, laughing like a maniac and never mind the lightning and the bugs in your teeth, ’cause whatever happens and however scary and uncomfortable it might get, it’s sure gonna be interesting. At some point early on, I guess I just signed on for that ride. I’m so glad I did.

Now. About the book!

WONDROUS STRANGE will be released on December 23, 2008 by the marvelous people at Harper Collins and is the first in a Trilogy! Here’s an idea of what it’s all about:

Kelley Winslow is living her dream. Seventeen years old, she has moved to New York City and started work with a theatre company. Sure, she’s an understudy for the Avalon Players, a third-tier repertory company so far off-Broadway it might as well be in Hoboken, but things are looking up—the lead has broken her ankle and Kelley’s about to step into the role of Titania the Fairy Queen in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Faeries are far more real than Kelley thinks, though, and a chance encounter in Central Park with a handsome young man will plunge her into an adventure she could never have imagined.

For Sonny Flannery, one of the Janus Guards charged by Auberon, the King of Winter, with watching over the gate into the lands of Faerie that lies within Central Park, the pretty young actress presents an enigma. Strong and willful, she sparks against his senses like a firecracker and he can’t get her out of his mind. As Hallowe’en approaches and the Samhain Gate opens, Sonny and Kelley find themselves drawn to each other—and into a terrible plot that could spell disaster for both New York and Faerie alike.


So. In conclusion, I’m chuffed to be your Girl Friday and I thoroughly grok this grog (see—nerd alert—that was a Start Trek thing... sorry...) Thanks for letting me be a part of it, NOVEL GIRLS!

If you'd like to visit me elsewhere on the interwebz, please feel free to check out my website or come be my myspace friend!