I’m BACK! And here’s a GIVEAWAY to prove it!

And I’m back! It’s been a while since my last real blog. But I have a good excuse! Two excuses! A cute excuse, even! First, back in December, I had a baby! He’s a very cute almost four-month-old now. It’s quite a thing having two children (I also have a four-year-old daughter). I’m amazed that…

Read more »

Thrilling news! NO SAFETY is a Quick Pick!

Go on, No Safety. You deserve that cupcake. I’m thrilled to announce that No Safety in Numbers has been chosen as a 2013 Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers by the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA)! I am so honored to be included on this list! Here is a description of the list from the…

Read more »

Odie

On Boys in YA…

This week, the Los Angeles Review of Books published an essay on the dearth of role models in modern YA literature showing a healthy path from boyhood to manhood. The author points to 19th century literature, such as Uncle Tom’s Cabin, as providing the kind of role models for this path that we currently lack….

Read more »

You live by Siri, You’re Gonna Die By Siri…

Today is the start of National Novel Writing Month or NaNoWriMo. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, it is exactly what it sounds like: A group of writers, both professionals and amateurs, who come together to support one another in writing a novel in a month, and that month is this month—November….

Read more »

Cover Image for The Storm

Hooray for School Visits!

I had the pleasure of visiting Ms. Bradunas’s class at the Our Lady of Hope/St. Luke School in Baltimore, MD this past Tuesday. We talked about The Storm, the first book in the Dogs of the Drowned City series, the real-world inspiration for the story, and how I created a dog’s eye view of the…

Read more »

Cage Match: A Tale of Two Cities vs. The Hunger Games

This week, I thought I would take on the YA-is-super-dark-and-isn’t-this-a-sign-teens-and-YA-authors-today-are-evil/morbid/violent/etc. argument. This issue crops up again and again in the media, like here and here. It came up in my FastCompany interview. And yes, there is a lot of heavy stuff in YA literature today. But is this a sign of change, or are YA…

Read more »

This Month in Hypochondria

I am starting to feel like a normal person (well, as normal as possible for me…) again after a rather hectic period of editing Book 2 of the No Safety in Numbers trilogy, No Easy Way Out. I am so excited about this book. I wish I could give it to you right now! Alas,…

Read more »

Some thoughts while knee-deep in revisions…

Happy Thursday! I am working away on the final revisions to No Easy Way Out, the sequel to No Safety in Numbers, and thus have few thoughts outside of That Line Could be Tighter and What Happened Here? But I have perused some random things on the interwebs while working and they felt weirdly relevant…

Read more »

In defense of the pride I feel in my life choices…

 If you think you can do a thing or think you can’t do a thing, you’re right. – Henry Ford I write this blog in response to a commenter on an interview I did for FastCompany. The commenter called the story of my switch from the law to writing a “rubbish story,” suggesting that I…

Read more »

My Book Launch Party: A How-to

I have taken the last month or so off from blogging and tweeting and Facebooking in an effort to remain sane while I finished Book 2 of the No Safety in Numbers trilogy. I am so excited about Book 2! It’s called No Easy Way Out. I hope you like it. I am about to…

Read more »