Teen Lit MOB is coming to the Fletcher Free Library on April 7th! Register for it here! What is a Teen Lit MOB you might ask? It’s a full day of awesome activities and workshops and talks with YA writers–including ME! Can I interest you in an exciting round of Choose Your Own Mall Disaster? I…
Happy Back-to-School Season! I love this time of year–the slight chill in the morning air, the prospect of changing leaves and fiery hillsides, the fact that my kids are back on a regular schedule, meaning I can be on a regular schedule, meaning WRITING IS GETTING DONE, FOLKS! In addition to writing alone at my…
Am I proud of myself? Why, yes, I am! Here’s to what you can do with a phone camera and iMovie! I hope this convinces you to come an see what shenanigans ensue when I’m given a mike and a FULL HOUR! For more information, check out my previous blog post or this flyer from the…
Happy New Year to all! As many are wont to do around this time of year, I have been reflecting on 2015 and setting goals for 2016. 2015 was a very busy year for me, though not necessarily in a public way. I did a ton of writing and revising, and visited classrooms both in…
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….
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…
Dayna Lorentz is the author of the DOGS OF THE DROWNED CITY series (Scholastic) and NO SAFETY IN NUMBERS (Dial).
I write because I have to; I write because I love to; I eat cupcakes because they’re there.