Simmone Howell

Simmone is from down under, we've never met, but she wrote the YA novel Notes From The Teenage Underground. I liked it so much, I blurbed it. I said ""Notes From The Teenage Underground is a refreshingly honest, straight-to-the-heart story of a girl finding her own artistic vision. This is like a primer for any teen that is serious about doing art."

She gives us her Punk essentials Aussie style!

Oz punk ish
(or songs that made me lose it when I was young and wore too much eyeliner)

xsimmone

shivers - boys next door

Immortal first line: I've been contemplating suicide ...

jack the ripper - nick cave & the bad seeds

This is all stomp and primal: I got a wooooman she rules my house with an iron fist she screams out jack the ripper everytime I try to give the girl a kisss)

true love - marching girls

First found on the Dogs in Space soundtrack. Awww, cute.

aloha steve and danno - radio birdman

Rob Younger - knows how to pony


she's crackin' up - cosmic psychos

she's a dish - hard ons

my pal - god

My friends and I were in awe of joel silbersher who was only 16 when he was in God. Wikipedia says he is "like history, short and violent"

slave girl - lime spiders

(I'm) stranded - the saints

psycho - beasts of bourbon
(Tex Perkins! He's still got it!)

Brian Wood

Brian Wood is my new friend, but he feels like an old friend. I met him last year at the San Diego Comic Con at the Vertigo / Minx family dinner. I felt Brian was a kindred spirit from the get go and it was confirmed to me the next night when I went by myself to the bar to hang out, only I didn't know anyone in the comic book community yet, and so I was feeling shy and lonely and stupid. Basically, I was pretty much hugging the wall, sipping my beer, and not talking to anyone, just like a wall flower, when Brian walked up and rescued me from myself by introducing me around.

He writes great comic books, DMZ is simply astounding. Demo is so great that it was named an ALA Great Graphic Novels For Teens and a NY Public Library Book for the Teen Age. And he also has Supermarket. His next series, Northlanders, is about Vikings, so I already know, sight unseen, that I'm going to be ga ga over it.

Other things I know and like about Brian Wood:

He's got the nicest, coolest & cutest family.

He designs the best t-shirts.

And, more importantly, he has great taste in music.

Cecil:

my top 10, avoiding the obvious ones already listed:

Transmetropolitan by The Pogues
Sacred Love by Bad Brains
Clampdown by The Clash
Blueprint by Fugazi
America by Sick Of It All
How To Start a Fight by Murphy's Law
Rebel Girl by Bikini Kill
Slip It In by Black Flag
Blank Generation by Richard Hell
Good Guys Don't Wear White by Minor Threat

here's a pic of me and brian at NY Comic Con

BEIGE is out today!

Learn a little bit about Beige and why I wrote it!

Holly Black

How do I love Holly Black? Let me count the ways... she's fantastical, she writes exquisite books ( Tithe, Valiant, Ironside, The Spiderwick Chronicles, ) she likes coffee, she has a great laugh, she's smart as hell, and I adore her. She is a little Goth, a little Punk and more than a little bit awesome.

She even liked BEIGE so much, she blurbed it. She said, "Subversive and raw and surprising."

I love her list. I'm cranking it to 10 right now.

Cecil,

Here are my essential ten punk songs. Okay, I was a little liberal with my definition of punk, but I hope they will do.

Love, Holly

1. Whip in My Valise - Adam Ant
2. Clash City Rockers - The Clash
3. Teenage Lobotomy - Ramones
4. The Killing Jar - Siouxsie and the Banshees
5. The Man Who Sold The World - David Bowie
6. God Save The Queen - Sex Pistols
7. California Uber Alles - Dead Kennedys
8. Shadow Play - Joy Division
9. I Want to be Your Dog - The Stooges
10. Waiting for the Man - Velvet Underground