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This author appeared at the 2009 festival. Please view the list of authors appearing at this year's festival or see our suggestions for similar authors below.
 Cynthia Leitich Smith
After embarrassing herself at her high school play's auditions in front of the boy she has a crush on, Miranda really thought she'd had a bad day; little did she know she was about to become a vampire. In Eternal, Leitich Smith revisits the dark world she established in Tantalize, her first young adult novel. Finding herself suddenly at the pinnacle of the Eternal high society, Miranda quickly falls into the role of princess to the Mantle of Dracul. Though dead, her outlook is sunny, and she thinks to herself, "Now that I'm dead, it's like every night is opening night, all of it is improv, and I'm a superstar (with no experience)." As her soul slips away, her fallen guardian angel, Zachary, struggles to find her and coax her back to the light. Inexperienced and loyal to a fault, Zachary makes an unfortunate misstep in a cemetery at midnight, which costs him his wings and lands Miranda in the unexpected position of undead royalty. Only when she chooses Zachary as her personal assistant does her humanity begin to surface again, and the two must face the monster that threatens to damn them both forever. Smith's humor is in the details: an angel offers Yahoo maps as a directional aide, Dracula purchases a coffin for a reduced rate online, and Zachary gets a tattoo of a cherub on his chest while intoxicated in Austin. Fans of Stephanie Meyers' Twilight series and other vampire romances will delight in Smith's new spin on the genre. The San Antonio Express-News states that Eternal's "offer of redemption … sets this tale apart from others." Smith is the author of five other books for children and young adults as well as a popular blog, Cynsations. She is a faculty member at Vermont College's Writing for Children and Young Adults MFA program. She lives in Austin.
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