One theme of my debut novel is evident by its title, The Tension of Opposites. My main character, 16-year-old Tessa, struggles with the pull of opposites in many areas of her life as she deals with her best friend's return home after a two-year abduction. In honor of Tessa and the wrap-up of my exciting launch, I thought it might be fun for us ( Read more... )

Cliques, labeling by others, and even self-branding are things teens often have to deal with. In my book my main character, Phe, identifies herself as an 'indie' kind of person with her checkerboard Vans and love of underground music, but she doesn't let that decide what kind of friends she's going to have. Phe is interested in many things--- ( Read more... )

I have a bad tendency to dress like my characters. There. I said it ( Read more... )

Not pie-in-the-sky, “when I make it big” dreams.  These are the bizarre nighttime ones where you’re hang-gliding with David Levithan and Stephenie Meyer or Stephen King is showing you how to tie macramé knots.

When my book was first out for review and I was checking Goodreads six-hundred times a day, I dreamed John Green completely trashed it.  ( Read more... )

When I sold Change of Heart, a friend bought me a t-shirt that read “Careful or you’ll wind up in my novel ( Read more... )

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Before I sold my first book, I had some vague expectations of what the editorial process would be like. Even though I had heard of authors who essentially only had to complete a line edit prior to publication, I never really expected that for myself. The idea of removing sub-plots and characters, changing motivations, and drastically changing the ( Read more... )

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When I'm writing, I like to listen to music, especially when I'm writing in my usual coffee house. There's usually someone at the next table complaining about the food on her last trip to Spain or speaking too loudly on the phone about profit margins or standard deviations. When that happens, earbuds are my friends.

But it can't be just any music. ( Read more... )

When I first started writing HEX HALL, I had one pretty basic goal in mind: Write a book that A)involved Lots of Scandalous Making Out, B)was fun to write, and C)did not suck. I know I met at least two of those goals, and I'm HOPING I met the third! Most writers I know are big fans of Setting Goals. Sometimes, it's "I will write 1,000 words before ( Read more... )