As a novelist for young adults, I spend a lot of time trying to recapture the emotions I had in high school. For me, there wasn’t much joy in being a teen. I wrote poetry back then, and a lot of what I wrote captures my self-loathing and fear and confusion. I sometimes wrote about wanting to get life over with. But I also wrote about hope. I hoped things would get better. I only half-believed they would. So if I could go back in time and talk to my teenage self, this is what I’d say: All those feelings...
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As a debut author, getting your book reviewed is a big deal, so in the weeks after my advanced reader copies (ARCs) went out to reviewers, I’ve been nervously waiting, telling myself that if my book gets slammed, it’s just one person’s opinion, right? Well, I just got word that A WORK OF ART received a “starred” review from Kirkus Reviews! When my publisher told me, I had the same feeling as when my agent sold my book all those months ago—relief (since those Kirkus stars are hard to come by) mixed with validation. (Getting my book published wasn’t just...
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