How did you decide you wanted to be a writer? I started to write—poems at first—in junior high, 7th or 8th grade. I had a series of teachers who taught poetry and encouraged writing, and I found that writing things down, and turning my daily experience and my emotions into stories or poems, was [...]
Yesterday I posted a review of Meredith Zeitlin’s new book, Freshman Year and Other Unnatural Disasters. Today, she’s here to talk about the writing life and her spunky heroine, Kelsey Finkelstein. How did you know you wanted to be a writer? MZ: I’ve always just been one, really—since I was very little. I come from [...]
Michaela MacColl has written two novels for young readers that feature historical figures: Beryl Markham in Promise the Night and Queen Victoria in Prisoners in the Palace: How Princess Victoria Became Queen with the Help of Her Maid, a Reporter, and a Scoundrel. Recently I had a chance to ask her a few questions about [...]
Sherry Shahan is the author of many works of both fiction and nonfiction, including Purple Daze, a young adult book that looks at the Vietnam War and other events of the ’60s through verse, letters, journal entries and news stories (see my review). Recently, I was able to ask Shahan a few questions about her [...]
Bianca Turetsky is the author of The Time-Traveling Fashionista (see my review), a book about a girl who tries on a vintage dress and ends up transported back to the time the original owner wore it. It’s the first in a new series, and here, Turetsky talks about how she became a writer, her interest [...]
You can count me among the legion of Jane Austen fans. That’s why I was so intrigued to find out about a new book by Jennifer Ziegler called Sass & Serendipity, that’s somewhat based on Austen’s Sense and Sensibility. Tomorrow I’ll be posting my review of the book (hint: I like it!), and today I’m [...]
Yesterday I featured a review of The Grand Plan to Fix Everything by Uma Krishnaswami. This book about a girl who moves to India with her family is a great mother-daughter book club read for groups with girls aged 9 to 12. Today, I’m excited to offer an interview with the author, who offers insight [...]
How did you decide to become a writer? SOC: I had always wanted to be a writer, even before I could write, but it didn’t seem possible to me. I didn’t know any writers; I didn’t know how someone became such a thing. It wasn’t until I took a writing class in college and my [...]
