Blogfest 2009

Not just totally okay, but totally important. Teens are great self-selectors. If they can’t handle something, they aren’t going to read it. And books that show physical relationships between characters – for better or for worse – are a way for teens to safely explore the choices they have when it comes to their own bodies. It’s a way for them to see that they aren’t alone in their feelings, their choices, and their conflicts.

That said…

I hate kissy business in books. Smooch, smooch, yawn. I’d rather people be chased by murderous spies or survive in the wilderness with nothing but their psychic abilities and a pair of tweezers.

It was actually totally the opposite for me.  When I was writing my first book, SKIN, I couldn’t really imagine it ever getting published.  So even though it was fiction, I put a whole lot of my own teenage angst and fears and pain in there – I mean the really goopy stuff that you only tell your best friend or maybe your dog, but only if he can keep a secret. I was so happy the book was published, but I was also like, Oh crow, that means people are actually going to read what I wrote! But the amazing thing is that all of that honesty, all of those secret fears and hopes, those are the things that I ended up having the best conversations with readers about.

Give up writing? No way, dude! If I didn’t write, I’d shrivel up like a dead bug and blow away with the next strong wind. But….have I ever been totally besieged by unhelpful advice from my inner writing demons telling me that whatever I’m writing should be written by somebody who is smarter and funnier and a better dancer (they’re demons, they hit where it hurts)? Totally! But I do my best to just shoot those demons with mind-Jello (they’re allergic) and carry on.

Oh, that’s easy! I would FLY!