Marian Cheatham is a full-time writer of YA novels and screenplays, part-time everything else – spouse, homemaker, volunteer, and animal guardian of five pets. In her free time, she loves to read, walk, garden, and travel. Not necessarily in that order. She and her husband work hard (and have fun) ticking off items on their Bucket List.

Her YA series, Stratford High, revolves around modern retellings of Shakespeare’s plays. Ruined, Book One, is inspired by the Bard’s classic romance, Much Ado About Nothing. 4Ever Girl, Book Two, is inspired by Shakespeare’s controversial comedy, The Merchant of Venice.

Marian’s debut YA, Eastland, is based on the real-life story of the 1915 Eastland boat disaster in Chicago. Post contains affiliate links.

E-Books or Paperbacks? Which Do You Prefer?

I personally love the idea of an e-book. When I received my Kindle as a Christmas present a few years ago, I was thrilled to tears, and couldn’t wait to upload my first book. I just devoured it, and then got busy uploading all sorts of things, especially e-books from my writer friends.

Having said that, I still prefer a paperbound book to read. I can’t get an e-book autographed, can’t fill my book shelves with them, can’t really savor them from cover to cover. Maybe I’m old-fashioned that way, but I’ll never tire of having paperbacks.

But there’s an upside to e-books as well. With my Kindle, I can take an entire library of books on vacation with me, and the collection will only weigh a pound! Now that’s modern technology at its best. As an author, I appreciate the e-book and sell more electronic books than paperbound books. My YA readers prefer e-books. If I couldn’t provide a product for them, then I’d be driven out of the book market very quickly. E-books are here to stay, and we must all adapt.

I’m a huge Trekkie fan. On Star Trek, The Next Generation, Captain Jean-Luc Picard always read hardcover books. He had a musty collection of Earth classics from the likes of William Shakespeare or Herman Melville. Whenever any of his crew saw him with one of these rare paperbound books, they would question him. Why didn’t he use the replicator? Just order the book he wanted and a bright, shiny new one would appear?

But Captain Picard was a hold-out for the ancient ways. He wanted to have a real book printed on paper from trees grown on Earth, not some electronic simulation of a book generated by a computer. Star Trek TNG was on in the 80’s and 90’s when e-books were only a dream, but I remember those scenes. They made a real impression on me and now, Star Trek’s “magical” technology is here. We pay Amazon and whoosh, the book we ordered appears on our tablet, or pad, our laptop, even our cell phone. How Star Trekkian! How wonderful for us 21st century humans!

4Ever Girl, Book Two in the Stratford High Series, inspired by Shakespeare’s controversial comedy, The Merchant of Venice.

Benji Merchant, has only one desire – to take the beautiful and spirited, Portia Belmont, to their senior prom. But first, Benji must win her heart. He enlists the help of his twin sister, Toni Merchant, in a wild scheme to impress Portia. Toni has reservations, especially when she learns that her brother’s plan involves the elusive tattoo artist, Shiloh Lender.

Shiloh agrees to help Benji, but only if Toni concedes to Shiloh’s unbelievable terms. Will Toni accept the challenge and support her brother in his quest for Portia’s love? Or will Toni refuse Shiloh’s conditions and let her brother down?

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