Kiss kiss, blog blog

Laguna writer Alyson Noel never planned on becoming a teen-idol author, but she knew she wanted to write.

An Orange County native and former flight attendant who has lived on the islands of Manhattan and Mykonos, Noel has just released her fifth novel, “Kiss & Blog,” with St. Martin’s Griffin. The book is available nationwide.

The story takes place in Laguna Beach and is geared toward teens.

Protagonist Winter is left in the shadow of her former best friend, Sloane, who is catapulted into popularity while Winter languishes in lunch-table obscurity.

Winter publishes a scandalizing, anonymous blog about Sloane, referring to her as the “Pink Princess” and detailing her deepest secrets. The blog’s unexpected popularity comes back to haunt Winter, who also navigates the world of boys, growing up and having divorced parents.

The book is the latest in a string of Young Adult hits that have launched Noel into the world inhabited by “Gossip Girl” and “The Princess Diaries.”

With an adoring crowd that snatches them up the moment they’re published, the market for such books is ripe.

But although Noel loves writing for youth, and her career requires her to delve into their minds, she said she’s quite content to spend time with her attorney husband and dote on her sister’s children.

“I’m a really good aunt,” she said, smiling.

Noel talked about writing for years before it finally germinated into a calling.

Her early addiction to Judy Blume fiction fed that dream.

“It showed me, ‘This is what a book can do.’ It can address you specifically,” she said.

She finally decided to pursue it professionally while working for the airlines.

“I had this story just burning in my head; it wasn’t until I had finished it that I started thinking in terms of genre,” she said.

She wrote that first novel, “Faking 19,” while on layover or waiting in terminals for delayed flights.

“Somewhere along the way, I just really fell in love with writing for teens,” she said.

Along with an adult chick lit book about a flight attendant, “Fly Me to the Moon,” Noel has written several teen books based locally.

“There’s something really unique about Orange County,” she said. “It’s just beautiful. The weather’s great. It offers a wonderful promise and delivers on it.”

She now enjoys dropping favorite places into her novels, such as guilty-pleasure Golden Spoon Frozen Yogurt, where she gave the owner a copy of the book in which it was mentioned.

“Kiss & Blog” is liberally splashed with bits of the Laguna that old-timers love to hate.

The novel’s antagonists live for Juicy Couture and Mystic Tan, and coo over the jock who drives a Hummer.

The book has the ring of teen truth to it: Noel’s characters drop f-bombs, the s-word and other obscenities; experiment with drugs and alcohol; and have amorous experiences in house parties.

But the novel isn’t all reality TV.

“That’s certainly not my goal,” Noel said. “It’s a real place with real people and real problems. It’s fun to show the other side of Laguna Beach.”

The characters in one of Noel’s previous novels, “Laguna Cove,” attended Laguna Beach High School, but she decided to make up a school — Ocean High — for “Kiss & Blog.”

MTV’s effect is mentioned by characters on both sides of the debate, showcasing the town’s continuing dialogue.

Noel drops events like First Thursdays Art Walk and the Sawdust Winter Fantasy into the book.

Winter’s mother owns an organic café and spouts off about the corporate machine and the evils of Twinkies. But all Winter wants her to do is be like all the other moms — get some highlights, throw on some makeup and drive an SUV, not a Prius.

Geography — like the intersection of Forest and Ocean Avenues — is often laid out to enhance the novel’s realism, although Winter refers to Coast Highway as “PCH.”

Characters shop for makeup at the Monarch Beach CVS, when not being carted around to South Coast Plaza or Fashion Island. To prepare for “Kiss & Blog,” Noel “poked around” on various blogs to get a sense of weblog style.

“There’s sort of a disconnect when you’re on the Internet,” she said. “It feels really anonymous.”

Although she didn’t have her own weblog when she began writing “Kiss & Blog,” she now keeps one on her website, www.alysonnoel.com.

Goals for Noel include writing more books, traveling more and “maybe a puppy at some point.”

She will be part of a forum on writing teen lit at Latitude 33 Bookshop, 311 Ocean Ave., on Sunday.

To register or for additional information, call (949) 494-5403.