The recent tragic events in Brussels make the joy I experienced this past weekend at the NYC Teen Author Festival feel like ancient history. But it isn’t. The wonder and hope I felt in the company of so many readers…
This winter I’ve been reading about serial killers, Arctic explorers pulling themselves up from deep ice crevasses only to die of starvation, and artists and lawyers wallowing in misery while living in million dollar apartments.
Lately, every time I get going on my writing I kill the buzz by thinking about what I’m doing wrong. When I wrote my first novel I plowed ahead blindly, but now I have a serious case of knowing too…
Two of my favorite YA novels, The Spectacular Now by Tim Tharp and the Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky, are written by men about boys in trouble. I feel guilty admitting this given that I’m a woman…
I used to be a good girl, a little too good actually. In school I never talked to ‘my neighbors.’ It took years for me to work up the courage to tear that little label off my mattress. But deep…
I recently got laid off from an IT job I’d held for 35 years (I really did stay at an insurance company that long) and became a debut author. This has been, without a doubt, an exciting time. But new…