According to Publishers Weekly, Laura Moser and Lauren Mechling have launched a YA serial on Slate.com with a parallel online world where their characters update their Facebook pages, tweet, and post videos on YouTube. How cool is that? The story, which went live today, will unfold in 11 three-chapter segments posted every Friday through August.

Mechling, a culture editor at the Wall Street Journal, said the idea for the novel started unfolding after her coauthor, who writes for Slate, was approached by editors at the site to do something in the YA vein. The result, My Darklyng, is about a 10th grader named Natalie Pollock whose obsession with a popular vampire series takes a scary turn after she auditions to be a cover model for one of the new books. They apparently started with the story but found it rewarding and fun to build online components that complemented and expanded upon the world they were creating. Teenagers Hannah Grosman and Erin Schrode portray the book's lead characters online.

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