Characters!

Okay, this is not about YA lit, but it is about authors and writing and stuff. J.R. Ward has a series of vampire romances centered around the males of The Black Dagger Brotherhood. Not terribly important, but anyway, she has this really cool page on her website where she "interviews" all of her main characters. It is just so freaking cool. What a great idea! You need to take a look at it because it's not like a plain interview; it's very creatively done. YA authors should do this, especially people like Stephenie Meyer who have series books that people are madly in love with. It would be a quick and easy way for the authors to explore/expose a little more of their characters and give fans a fun read. Or maybe just give a little follow-up without writing a whole novel or answer FAQs in a creative way. I love it.

On a related note about authors providing good supplementals for their readers, I also like to read deleted scenes. Ward has some on her website, and Scott Westerfeld posted one from Specials on his blog. I like how Westerfeld explained why he first wrote it and why he decided to delete it. Fascinating for those who can't get enough of the books and who like to understand the writing process.

Topic for future discussion: What YA authors have the best websites? What features do you most like to see on author websites?