The Juvenilia Panel at the NYC Teen Author Festival put me in a nostalgic mood. And so I present to you, the full story behind my unpublished first novel.When I was in 7th grade, I started my very first novel. It was the bloodthirsty tale of a suburban girl gang: seven members, seven different weapons specialties! It had a pretentious, half-French ( Read more... )

Confession: When I was in 7th grade, I wanted to be an American Gladiator. (This was in addition to my other ambitions, like being an author or a spy.) I was not athletic, or particularly buff or anything--I just wanted to bruise & abuse people while wearing red-white-and-blue glittery spandex, have a cool codename (like "Ice"!), and appear on ( Read more... )