May 15 2019
I’m a big believer in listening and paying attention to all of the stories around you. To the people who talk about their days in a compelling way. To the family histories. To books, yes. To audiobooks. And to movies and TV shows. And in that vein, I would like to take a minute to validate all of you in your Netflix habits because I’m about to tell you to watch more movies. Stop feeling […]
Apr 17 2019
I was lucky enough to sit on a panel this weekend and I’ve been thinking about something that kept coming up— the process. The process is how you write a book. How you get from the start of a book all the way to the end. That secret, sacred, all-magical, all-encompassing trick that a writer has for producing a story. And there I sat, in the middle of a group of panelists, who all had […]
Mar 13 2019
I’m lucky enough to live in a city with many other young adult writers. I get to see them on a fairly regular clip and talk shop, as they say. I always feel immensely grateful for this. That I can sit down and make dinner and talk with people who understand what it is to live and work and write not just in the publishing industry, but within our little niche and corner of that […]
Feb 13 2019
As some of you might know, I’m into boxing (the kind where you punch things). As some of you might not know, I’ve been coming back from an injury recently. I’ve been doing a lot of physical therapy— lots of stretching, lots of small and methodical movements, lots of careful placement of my body as I do activities that I’ve been training to do for quite a while. I promise this has to do with […]
Jan 16 2019
It is a truth universally acknowledged that there are two types of writers— plotters and pantsers— and all writers love to talk about which ones they are. It’s a writing conversation starter. A softball. Are you plotter or a pantser? Nobody is wholly one or wholly the other, but the lines are drawn somewhere between— do you largely create outlines and stick to them? and do you largely discover the plot as you go along, preferring […]