The lovely Cristin Terrill invited me over to discuss theater, Sir Ian McKellen buying tea, and her recent decision to admit a planned sequel to her debut novel, All Our Yesterdays, was not a workable project. Cristin is funny and quick, and her kindhearted vibe may have something to do with the fact that she knows she has a safety net: dog grooming school.
Petite and a bit quiet, Lindsay Smith has a mysterious vibe. And once she starts talking, it only gets more interesting! YA’s John le Carré, Lindsay is a history buff who is fluent in Russian, and her debut novel, SEKRET, and its follow-up, SKANDAL (due in April 2015 from Roaring Brook Press) explore what would happen if Russia were hiding paranormally-enhanced super-humans behind the iron curtain during the Cold War. Pretty awesome stuff. Lindsay invited me over to talk 20th century politics, the round-the-clock nature of D.C.’s creative types, and the sheer terror of trying to write for adults.
Caroline Tung Richmond is a smiling, stylin’ ball of endless positive energy, and with her debut novel set to come out in September (THE ONLY THING TO FEAR, 9/30/14 from Scholastic) I was jazzed to meet up with her in Rockville, Maryland, just outside of Washington, D.C. Caroline is full of incredible advice for writers in the trenches, and gives us a perspective on how being a new mother is hurting and, in some ways, helping her writing process. Also, she schools me on awesome sci-fi references — though Stark Trek fans should be warned that Caroline admits her memory of Deanna Troi’s fate may be a bit hazy. (But we won’t hold that against her. She has mad TNG cred.)
A conversation with Robin Talley, author of LGBT YA novels, including LIES WE TELL OURSELVES, out Sept. 30 with Harlequin Teen. We talk diversity in YA, the importance of a writing community, and hear a few special cameos from her tuxedo cat, Javert.
The inaugural First Draft podcast! A discussion with the lovely Somaiya Daud, 24-year old author of the forthcoming BEGIN AGAIN, about radical happiness, Bill Shakespeare’s butt jokes, and #WeNeedDiverseBooks.
Listen to the podcast here, or download it on iTunes or Stitcher.
Somaiya Daud Show Notes:
N.K. Jemisin, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms
Audre Lorde A Litany For Survival and Sister Outsider
NaNoWriMo = National Novel Writing Month
Donna Haraway, “A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century.”
Charlotte Dacre Zofloya
Daniel Jose Older's Shadowshaper
Sumayyah’s blog post at YA Highway, “I’m Still Here”
