Categories:
Interviews
Categories:
Interviews
There's been three new author interviews added to the site for you to check out. Here's a sneak peek from all three:
An interview with Christine Verstraete, author of Searching For A Starry Night
What authors have influenced you the most?
I love a good scare so Stephen King, Dean Koontz, and others have been long-time favorites. I enjoy reading in all genres and different types of fiction, as well.
An interview with Jody Gehrman, author of Confessions of a Triple Shot Betty
How much of your writing is based on your own experience as a child or teenager?
Not a lot, except in a general way. I mean I did set CONFESSIONS OF A TRIPLE SHOT BETTY near the town where I grew up—I always choose a setting I'm somewhat familiar with—and I did keep a journal, as the main character does, but not much of this book is autobiographical. I think when I'm writing Geena's journal for her I'm writing the diary I wish I'd written as a teenager, because Geena never loses her sense of humor, and I can't say the same for myself when I was her age.
An interview with Moira Donahue, author of Penny and the Punctuation Bee
Did you always want to be a writer?
I started writing when I was a kid. When I was in junior high, I wrote a story about a ballet dancer that I sent to Scholastic. Of course, it was rejected, but with a very nice letter. In college, I stopped writing for fun. I went to law school, became a lawyer and wrote things like memoranda and legislation. But I missed writing stories, so I started again as an adult.
Categories:
Interviews
Categories:
Interviews
Today’s the release of the new installment of the House of Night series: Chosen. To celebrate, Chelsea (the 2008 Teen Reviewer) and I got together to do a tag team interview with the authors of this exciting series. Here’s a sneak peek:
C: What do the two of you like to do when you're not writing?
PC: Together we like to travel and shop and have “luncheon!” (to us luncheon means eating anytime day or night). By myself I like to workout (Kristin and I do go to the
gym together sometimes, though), walk my Scottie dogs, read, hang out with my
friends, etc.
KC: I Netflix different tv shows and obsessively watch them!
When I’m not living through Lana Lang or Buffy, I am doing stuff with friends and studying other stuff for my classes about things… Yay for college!
Categories:
Interviews,
Reviews
I recently reviewed Beth Kephart's novel UNDERCOVER for YABC. Written in lyrical, descriptive prose with occasional poems and quotes from Cyrano de Bergerac, Undercover is like the leading character, Elisa: quietly beautiful, artistic, and hopeful. Read the full review at the YABC site!
I also got a sneak peek at her next teen novel HOUSE OF DANCE, which will be released in June 2008. Read my review at my blog.
Finally, check out my interview with Beth Kephart for behind-the-scenes information on this and other releases.
Categories:
Excerpts,
Interviews,
YABC Site News
I'm posting a number of new (well, new to the site...some of it has been in my "pending" queue to post for quite some time...I'm trying to get caught up on everything before the baby gets here) items to the site today:
Categories:
Cool Stuff,
Interviews
(This post is part of Kaza Kingsley's January Blog Tour promoting her latest Eric Rex book).
Here's a picture of Kaza in Paris with a waiter who mysteriously keeps popping up in all the pictures...hey, at least he's cute!
Categories:
Interviews
A new interview with Liz Tigelaar has been posted. Check out this sneak peek:
How much of your writing is based on your own experience as a child or teenager?
Again, I tend not to write about myself. With Pretty Tough, people have asked "Who are you? Krista or Charlie?" I'm neither but there are elements that I relate to in each of them. I definitely use my own broader experiences--like the feeling of moving to a new place or losing someone you love--for story ideas but often it's the little specific things that I take out of my own childhood or my own experience. My love for nachos often makes it into my writing.
Categories:
Interviews
A new interview with Robin Reardon has been posted. Check out this sneak peek:
What's the one question that no one ever asks you and you wish they would?
No one has ever asked me what it feels like to write. Of course it can be frustrating, and confusing, and even painful at times. But mostly it feels like it’s the thing I do that is really me. It helps me crystallize my own ideas and my own image of myself. I don’t write autobiographically, and yet there’s a lot of me in everything I write. It feels validating and wonderful when I realize that in all my characters, even the ones I don’t like, there are things we all have in common. Things that connect us together. And writing helps me understand that. So even though I write alone, I’m connected to everyone in the world.
Categories:
Interviews
A new interview with Kristina Coia has been posted. Check out this sneak peek:
What authors have influenced you the most?
My favorite author of all time has to be Gail Carson Levine. Her books, especially The Two Princesses of Bamarre, have transported me into the most magical of fairy tales, and truly inspired me to create magic worlds of my own. Other authors whose works have influenced me are Libba Bray, Meg Cabot, and Amelia Atwater-Rhodes.
Categories:
Interviews
A new interview with Jan Crossen has been posted. Check out this sneak peek:
What would you be if you weren’t a writer?
I’d be a farmer. I’ve been fortunate and have had the opportunity to experience a variety of jobs and careers. I’ve been a high school teacher and coach, and for several years I worked in the hotel business. I’ve worked in public relations and been a co-owner and business manager of a veterinary hospital. My toughest, and most rewarding job, however, has been as a mom.
Categories:
Interviews
Here's an interview with Lesley Dahl, author of The Problem with Paradise. And here's a brief peek:
What’s the best piece of advice you ever had on writing?
One bit of advice you’ll hear a lot is: “Write every day.” It probably doesn’t get better, or more straightforward, than that, and we should all follow it. You’ll also hear, “Write what you know,” which is also good advice. But the advice that I’m trying to learn to follow is to write it all out – make a mess, get it down on paper and fix it later. Ray Bradbury has said that you have to get those stories in your head out of there and onto the page in order to make room for others. Beyond that, it’s about not letting that internal critic (about whom you’ll also hear a lot) intimidate you.
Categories:
Interviews
Check out this interview with Mary Depner. Here's a sneak peek:
What is your goal as a writer?
To give life to characters and situations that will make people think and lead them in a better direction in life. I’d like my readers to feel like they’ve found a friend in my characters, someone to relate to, look up to, or empathize with.
Categories:
Interviews,
YABC Site News
A special thank you to Beckie Weinheimer, author of Converting Kate, for donating towards the site and also helping to spread the word by passing out fliers at her local library. Let's get everybody reading!
And be sure to check out this interview with Beckie. Here's the sneak peek:
What's the one question that no one ever asks you and you wish they would? (With answer, please!)
I am so open and people seem to sense that and ask me whatever they want, I can't think of anything. I don't drink. Couldn't when I was part of the church I grew up in and now when asked why I don't I say, I am so uninhibited if I drank, I'd probably strip and dance down the street naked. I am an open book, that likes to hide and hermit up and then come out and be a people lover again.
Categories:
Interviews
Check out this interesting interview with James Howe, author of a whole ton of books (starting with Bunnicula in the 1970s). Here's the sneak peek, but be sure to check out the whole thing:
What’s the best piece of advice you ever had on writing?
Anne Lamott’s book Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life – the whole thing, but especially the chapters on writing shitty first drafts and giving yourself “short assignments.”
An example of the latter: I was working on a YA novel called The Watcher. It was (and is) the toughest book I’ve attempted to write. I was discussing my difficulties with my therapist (who else?), and he suggested I try writing the book as a series of short stories rather than as a novel because I’d had more success writing really personal material in short bursts. I went back to the book and framed it just that way, writing short, titled pieces that would ultimately add up to a sustained novel. I’ve used similar approaches at other times (Totally Joe, for example) and it has really helped me not only accomplish what I wanted but have fun along the way.
Categories:
Interviews
GLBT Month Feature: Find out why Alex Sanchez wrote his latest book in his essay: Why I Wrote the God Box. Here's a sneak peek, but be sure to read the whole thing.
Since the publication of my first novel, Rainbow Boys, I’ve received thousands of emails from teens all across America, telling me their own stories of growing up gay. Many letters have been like these:
Being gay and Christian is the hardest thing in the world. One day at church the pastor said the worst things about gay people. It was so hard for me not to cry, and my mom (who I just came out to) stared at me with a sorry feeling. But I still love God, and no matter what anyone says, I am what I am.
Categories:
Interviews
GLBT Month Feature: Here's an interview with David Levithan, author of a number of GLBT books (many of which we're giving away this month!). Here's the sneak peek, but be sure to read the whole thing.
Name and describe 3 must-read books for GLBT teens (and yes, one of your books can be in there!).
I’m not going to put my own books, although I will put an anthology I edited, The Full Spectrum, because it has teens and college students talking about the current GLBT experience in their own voices. And often truth speaks louder than fiction. I also would heartily recommend Billy Merrell’s poetry memoir, Talking in the Dark, which is one of the best GLBT teen memoirs we have (and might not be on people’s radars). And third… well, there are so many. Luna, Totally Joe, Geography Club, Rainbow Boys, The Straight Road to Kylie, Parrotfish, The Bermudez Triangle, The Saints of Augustine – there are (happily) so many good ones, and I’m sure I’m missing a few. But I’m actually going to advocate another book I edited, a novel called Lucky by Eddie de Oliveira, because it’s one of the best books out there about being a bisexual teen, and they’re not represented in our literature as much as they should be.
Categories:
Interviews,
Reviews
Categories:
Interviews
GLBT Month Feature: Be sure to take a look at this interview with Sara Ryan, author of Empress of the World and The Rules for Hearts.
Here's the sneak peek:
Many straight teens devour and enjoy GLBT YA lit just as much as the GLBT teens it is ostensibly targeted towards. As an author, has this surprised you? What do you think it means for our future and the future of today's GLBT teens?
It doesn't really surprise me. Teens are exploring identity, and reading GLBT lit is one way to explore. And of course, a good story is a good story. Just like you don't have to be African-American to enjoy books by authors like Angela Johnson or Jacqueline Woodson, you don't have to be queer to enjoy GLBT lit. Re what it means for the future: I think it's always a good sign when people want to read outside of their immediate experience.
