Have you ever finished reading a book, flipped to the end, and spotted a little note that says something like, “If you loved this book, please leave a review!”? Maybe you’ve seen it and thought, Eh, does it really make a difference? Spoiler alert: YES, it does—more than you probably think! Today, I want to…
Tag: Young Adult
The Inspiration Behind Aerial Ambitions: Circus Dreams, Grief, and Harry Styles
Every book has a story behind the story, and today, I want to share what inspired my third young adult novel, Aerial Ambitions. This book was on my heart for years before I had the chance to sit down and write it, and some of the inspiration behind it was expected—while one source completely surprised…
The Art of Editing: What I’m Focusing on in My Next Book
Second-draft land is a weird place. After the whirlwind of writing a first draft, you might think the second draft would be easier. But, as I’ve learned, it’s anything but. In the first draft, you’re essentially telling yourself the story—letting your imagination run wild and figuring things out as you go. But in the second…
From Draft to Publication: My Writing Journey
Every book starts with a single spark of inspiration. For me, it began with a simple question: What would happen if a girl was born into a famous flying family, but she was scared of heights? That idea lingered in my mind, and soon enough, Roz was born—the protagonist who would lead me on a…
Dear Diary…
Hello readers!! The following is a fun diary entry from Libby, a character featured in my latest YA novel, Etta and Gina, available now on Amazon’s kindle unlimited. If you like this, you can join my newsletter to receive the first four chapters of Etta and Gina for free here. Dear Diary, I can’t believe Mom is…
Friendship
It’s one of the big themes in my latest novel, Etta and Gina, and one that I loved exploring as a writer, because it’s something I’ve thought about a lot with my life on this planet. Growing up, I had a small but mighty group of girls that were almost always together – either at…
How I’m Making Writing More Fun
I go through cycles of my author journey where writing feels really carefree, fun, amazing, and then there are downright muddy, painful, and just plain hard times too. I’m in a hard phase right now, as you know from last month but I’ve decided instead of just staying in the muck, I’m going to pull…
Who And What Inspires Me
The other day I dropped one of those Question boxes onto my Instagram story so that I could do a big Q&A style blog post, but I only got one real honest-to-goodness question, the rest were spammers and bots. I was a bit disappointed until I realized that the human question that was asked was…
Why I Write Coming Of Age Stories for Young Adults
I write contemporary coming of age young adult novels. It’s a mouthful and it might not even be the correct terminology – I have no idea – but it’s what I write. I write books set in the now, in a real city in the real world with fictional characters going through things that…
An Interview With Etta And Gina
Today I would like to introduce you to Henrietta and Virginia, the two main characters in my current novel. I thought it would be fun to do a little interview and see what these two are up to. “Excuse me, did you just call me Henrietta? Only my Mom calls me that,” Etta says…