In April I went to a retreat outside of Austin, Texas, in the lush, rolling hills. I'd been toying with a book idea for a while, an idea...

That probably reads like a click bait headline. Oh well. I'm keeping it. I like it. And I completely one hundred percent believe what I...

Last night, I went to see Matt de la Pena at the 2011 Teen Author Lecture here in Portland, made possible by the Library Foundation. First...

I wrote my first three young adult novels while I worked 32 hours/week in Human Resources. I'd get up early in the mornings to write, an...

The dedication of my next YA novel, THE DAY BEFORE, reads: This one is for all of you who feel the fear and do it anyway, in writing and...

The wise and wonderful Sara Zarr did a blog post yesterday on fear, titled THE THINGS I CANNOT CHANGE . You should read it. Really! I've...