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Exploring the Travel Show
The expo floor, with booths organized by region of the country/world. After promising to publish an e-book travel guide to Portugal this year, I spent most of last weekend at The New York Times Travel...
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A New Project Finished!
The cloister and gardens are among the prettiest parts of the Santos-o-Novo convent. Last Friday, I typed the words “THE END” into a new young adult manuscript that I’ve been working on for most of the...
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I Meet Edmund White
Earlier this week I attended PEN America’s 2018 Literary Awards Gala, invited because I served as a judge for the PEN/Phyllis Naylor Working Writer Fellowship this year, evaluating children’s and young...
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Going It Alone as an Autistic Woman Writer: #kidlitwomen
I was always the kid who begged my teacher not to assign me to a group project but to let me do an individual one. When I did end up with a group, one of three things happened: 1) they ignored me; 2)...
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Supportive Communities in Books Portraying Autism
I often wonder how my life would have been different had my autism diagnosis come in preschool, or elementary school, or even middle or high school instead of adulthood. Would I have received...
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What’s Happening with Rogue?
Even though Rogue is technically out of print, it’s still available as an e-book, in many libraries, and in the secondhand market. I’m still getting letters from young people and adults for this now...
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The Rogue Q & A’s
In 2015 Rogue was selected as the One Book, One School read at Alexander Hamilton Middle School in Houston, Texas, as well as a finalist for the Truman Award, a state award for Missouri. I spoke to...
View ArticleSensitivity Readers vs. Expert Readers: What Is the Difference?
I am pleased to be picking up more sensitivity reads in the upcoming weeks. The money I earn will go toward hiring a professional editor, who will make my own voices YA historical novel the best that...
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Canaries in the Coal Mine
Today, April 2, has been designated as World Autism Awareness Day by the United Nations in a resolution passed in 2007. Other organizations have designated the entire month of April as Autism Awareness...
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“…Couldn’t Connect to Your Main Character”
In the past year or so, I’ve become a regular attendee of the SCBWI’s #Dialogs group, which began as the Marginalized Writers’ Meet-Up organized by Adria Quiñones, and has since broadened to an online...
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Life Imitates Art and a Broken Leg Foreshadowed
Five years ago, when my elaborate Lego buildings and mediocre Lego photography were Instagram fixtures, I joined a group of collaborative storytellers from around the world who took part in a giant...
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“Nothing About Us Without Us”
In ordinary years, October and November are busy conference seasons for educators. By then, we are settled into the school year but before the distractions of the holidays. Many of these conferences...
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Author’s Note
When it comes to putting a book together, I am seriously out of practice. MOONWALKING — which apparently will keep its original title despite speculation to the contrary — is about to go to the...
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Triple Threat!
My little blog has become a bit dusty over the past two weeks, mainly because I’ve been in the revision cave with the first round edits for TORCH, due on August 6. I was planning to talk a little bit...
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One of the PerSisterhood!
Six weeks ago I wrote about my five book projects in the works and my race to finish all of them before their deadlines — which I did! At that time, I referred to each of them by number, roughly when...
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Stellar News for a Picture Book Debut
I’ve had to wait to add this post with great news — as I’ve written in the past, much of publishing consists of having to wait to announce news — but today is the day! My debut picture book, Ways to...
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A Sneak Peek at Other People’s Books
The fact that I don’t travel like I used to and am working much more — between writing my own books, translating, teaching, and authenticity reading or consulting — means I have less time to update...
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Geeking Out at nErDcampPA
Now that it’s summer, school’s out and camp is in session. It’s not just for children either! For teachers and school librarians, many states offer nErDcamp, and because most of these are now hybrid or...
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“Not Like the Other Girls”
As this month is Women’s History Month, it’s a great opportunity to take on one of the most common tropes in fiction for tweens and teens. The “Not Like the Other Girls” trope involves a girl...
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