YA Wednesday: Spring Round-Up
It’s finally starting to look like spring here in New England – the tulips are popping, the buds on the trees are exploding, the grass is turning a neon shade of green. Summer is right around the corner! In celebration…
Value Your Writing (cause no one else does*)
Grub Street’s Muse and the Marketplace conference is this weekend. It’s always a good time of the year in Boston. Hundreds of writerly folks gather to talk craft, to talk publishing, to talk to each other, and to drink (because…
Friday Feast: Prince, Pulitzer Prize Winners Viet Thanh Nguyen and Lin-Manuel Miranda, Slackers, Readers vs. Writers, and South Park Creators on Plot
What does Prince have to do with writing? Everything if you’re a kid growing up in a dead-end town in a state that everyone forgets exists and everything around you is the worst and your stupid stepbrother told your parents…
Sunk Costs: The Value of Quitting
The slogans zing at writers everywhere we go, from tree-dangling kittens on social media to well-meaning cocktail party guests. Keep the Faith. Never Give Up. Butt in Chair. And we spoon feed it to ourselves as well, suckling at the…
YA Wednesday: YA in Verse, Prescribing YA for Mental Health, and YA Inspired Prom Themes and Dresses
April is the cruelest month. It’s also National Poetry Month, flu season, and prom season. I actually boycotted my senior prom. At the time I thought of it as a statement (no bourgeois corsage and prom dress for me!), but…
Dig Deeper and You Might Find What You’re Looking For
At this year’s Muse and The Marketplace I will be peddling (presenting? offering? begging acceptance for?) my YA historical novel, Big Shot. This will be my second time at Muse with this novel, though its first as a Young Adult…