Creative Symbiosis
Before I wrote regularly, I made art. My mother was an artist and art teacher, so I guess it was in my DNA. As a child, I drew stories — graphic novels without written words. As a young adult, I…
An Interview with Jessica Treadway, Author of Lacy Eye
By guest contributor, Lisa Borders. A professor of creative writing at Emerson College in Boston, Jessica Treadway’s latest novel, Lacy Eye, was published earlier this month. The novel will also be published in the UK and Australia, and translation rights have been bought…
Friday Feast: Writing Conferences, Sleep Habits, Wes Anderson, and “Appropriate” Literature
Conference anxiety. Censorship. Coming of age. This post could have also been named Feelings. All of the links highlighted this week have that certain something that provide people with a spectrum of feels.
How the Pied Piper of Tucson Led Me to My Story
Some writers keep returning to the story they have to tell until they get it right. When I started my YA novel Half in Love with Death (Merit Press – December 2015), I’d already abandoned two novels about a young…
Sex in YA Novels
There’s a lot of discussion online about sex in YA novels: too much of, not enough of, inappropriateness of, negative consequences of, condoning of, etc. etc. Among the critiques I received on the first draft of my YA novel was…
Friday Feast: Cinderella Story, Narrative Tension, Self-Esteem, and Bad Seeds
There are many versions of Cinderella. I’m fond of the Brothers Grimm version, which includes severed toes and heels and an army of birds who peck out eyeballs. After long hours of toil and trouble, Cinderella weeps and prays at the tree growing on…