Recent Links Recap - 17th-25th April

Viv and Faye, along with a load of other bloggers and authors, have set up a blog tour to support Tommy Donbavand, who was diagnosed with cancer last month. Check out his blog and head over to Serendipity Reviews for details of the blog tour - what a fantastic cause!

Time-sensitive one - there's a week left to bid on a full ms critique or sensitivity critique from Justina Ireland, founder of Writing In The Margins and fantastic author, in this amazing Refugee Benefit auction.

I am SUPER thrilled that today, at Teens on Moon Lane, I got to interview Maggie Stiefvater! Also on there recently, I did my favourite books for aspiring detectives.

And I took part in Heidi Heilig's blog tour, as she told me about two places that inspired the BRILLIANT The Girl From Everywhere.  Last Thursday, we got a great 5-4-3-2-1 from Brian Conaghan!

On this blog, I got seven fabulous people to help me write about the quarter-finalists in the #80s90skidsTV vote! (One of those quarter-finalists is Knightmare - the Den Of Geek piece on Knightmare's Top Ten Quest Characters was fantastic!)

I loved Chelley's awesome #6degrees post last week and Sarah Forbes's this past Saturday!

Non-bookish, but amazing news - Lin-Manuel Miranda's Hamilton won the Pulitzer!! Speaking of Hamilton, great piece by Caroline O'Donoghue for The Pool about the show. And to bring it back to books, great post from author Lou Morgan on what writers can learn from Hamilton and Matilda!  In addition, I LOVED this post by Gillian on YA books she wants to see turned into musicals! YES PLEASE. (Especially Simon Vs The Homo Sapiens Agenda!)

Really fantastic YA Interrobang piece by Julie Daly about asexual representation in YA.

I also loved Gaby Hinsliff's piece for The Pool on reverse mentoring.

Brilliant Safe Space posts from Faye on wonderful things in her life right now, Debbie on running and guest poster Hayley on being diagnosed with Myasthenia Gravis, nicknamed the Rag Doll disease

Superb posts, as ever, from Caitlin on Pain vs Pills: The Difficulty in Finding a Balance and Rediscovering Manchester, in which she talks about the fab afternoon we had when I visited her! 

There's a fantastic (although REALLY difficult - or maybe I'm just rubbish at it?) quiz on Shakespeare over at Caboodle! 

I've heard so many great things about IW Gregorio's None of the Above, which I need to read SOON. It's superb news that it's got a TV deal! 

I don't date, and reading Louise O'Neill's column makes me sooo happy this is the case! 

I loved The Book Addicted Girl's post on why you should be reading Leigh Bardugo's fantastic Grishaverse books! 

I can't decide who I want to win the YA Book Prize - so many amazing books are shortlisted! But I am VERY happy that there'll be a special award to Melvin Burgess to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the publication of the outstanding Junk. On the subject of Junk, there's a great Guardian post here on ten fantastic quotes from the book. 

It is just six weeks or so until If I Was Your Girl by Meredith Russo hits UK shelves - I can't wait!! I love Usborne's UK cover, but the US cover - with trans model Kira Conley on - is also amazing. Really brilliant interview about modelling with Kira here. 

Reminder that you can enter Stacey's fabulous colouring competition, as part of the #2016ClassicsChallenge, and win one of Little Tiger's gorgeous Pride and Prejudice colouring books!

Another reminder - we'll be packing Illumicrate up the weekend after next for subscribers! I THINK there are a handful of boxes left - don't miss out, sign up now!