Why Do I Write For Teens?

During the late Middle Ages when I was a teenager, YA books were pretty much nonexistent. After I’d worked my way through the Nancy Drew series, I had nowhere else to go. I remember sitting on the floor of my hometown’s dark, musty library squinting at titles on the spines of equally dark, musty books. Luckily for me, my grandmother, an avid reader, introduced me to wonderful mystery writers like Agatha Christie and Mary Roberts Rinehart. Otherwise I would have been forced to reread The Bobsey Twins, which is not where a teen reader wants to go.

Years later when I was a middle school reading teacher, I came across Scholastic Book Club's superb bonus point program. Soon I was reading more YA books than my students were and making an amazing discovery—in many cases the quality of writing was superior to the adult novels I had read.

When--several years and a few hundred tween and YA books later--I wrote my first novel, there was no doubt that it would be for a YA audience. I knew my readers, I knew the books, and I liked what I saw.

Hanging out in the world of talented writers like Chris Crutcher, Lois Lowry, Gary Paulson, and our awesome MTV authors is scary. But what fun is it to play the game if you don’t compete against the best?

Okay, if Danielle and Jenn can do it, so can I. In this picture, I'm sitting on the counter of my mom's office in the Dallas County Courthouse. BTW, it wasn't easy finding the right shade of orange tights to match my velvet paisley top. Impressive, no?