Blog
Love Maia has worked construction, flown planes, and starred in an infomercial. She loves the freeing energy of the club world, as well as pizza, butterflies, death metal, and underground hip-hop. Her debut novel, DJ RISING, was released on February 6th. When not hard at work on her next novel, Love can be found playing drums in an alternative rock band around San Francisco. Here she talks about writing, music, and butterfly wings.
Julie Cross lives in central Illinois with her husband and three children. She never wrote fiction before May of 2009, but since then, hasn't gone a day without writing. Here she talks about what it felt like to become a published author.
Jodi Meadows lives and writes in the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia, with her husband, a cat, and an alarming number of ferrets. She is a confessed book addict, and has wanted to be a writer ever since she decided against becoming an astronaut. Her first published novel, INCARNATE, is the first in a trilogy about a girl who is the first new soul born in a society where everyone else has been reincarnated many times before. Here Jodi talks about how the themes of her genre-crossing fantasy novel are actually very relevant to real life.
Tess Hilmo is a writer and an amateur composer who lives in Utah at the base of the Rocky Mountains. With a Name Like Love is her first novel. For more information, visit www.tesshilmo.com.
Steve’s fiction, poetry, and non-fiction articles have appeared in numerous publications, including The Nation, Poets & Writers, Mississippi Review, 100 Percent Pure Florida Fiction, North American Review and The Pushcart Prize Anthology. A graduate of Florida State University, Steve teaches journalism, creative writing, and Vietnam War literature at the University of Mary Washington. He also teaches Ashtanga yoga, and has worked as an investigator and advocate for abused and neglected children through the child advocacy organization CASA. Steve lives in Fredericksburg, Virginia with his wife Janet, and is the father of four daughters–Maggie, Eva, Claire, and Lili. Steve and Janet have served for the past three years as co-directors of the religious education program at the Fredericksburg Unitarian Universalist Church. Steve and Lili, who is 6, are active volunteers in Tree Fredericksburg, an urban reforestation project.
Cate Tiernan was born and raised in New Orleans, but now lives in North Carolina with her husband and children. She is also the author of the popular young adult fantasy series Sweep and Balefire. Here she talks about how she goes about writing her books.
Alecia Whitaker Alecia Whitaker grew up with a big imagination on a small farm in Kentucky. She knows more about cows, tobacco, frog gigging, and carpentry than the average girl, and she applies the work ethic and common sense she learned from her southern upbringing to the way she now navigates her career and family life in the big city.
Veronica Rossi graduated from UCLA and studied fine art at California College of the Arts in San Francisco. She began writing fiction for teens and received first-place awards in the Pacific Northwest Writers Association and SouthWest Writers annual contests before completing UNDER THE NEVER SKY. It’s since captivated publishers in more than twenty-five countries worldwide and been optioned for film by Warner Bros. Veronica lives in northern California with her husband and two sons. Here she talks about The End.
Helen Landalf was born in San Diego, California, where she grew up with her two brothers, one of whom has autism. His beautiful artwork can be seen in her picture book THE SECRET NIGHT WORLD OF CATS, which he illustrated, and on the cover of MOVEMENT STORIES FOR YOUNG CHILDREN. When Helen was fifteen years old, she was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma. Although she recovered, it was an experience that made a dramatic impact on her life. Perhaps because her teen years were so difficult, she became inspired to write for Young Adults. Her debut YA novel, FLYAWAY, about a girl who struggles to deny her mom's addiction to meth, was released from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in Fall 2011. When she's not writing, Helen works as a certified Pilates instructor and teaches Creative Dance to preschoolers. She has authored / co-authored five books for teachers about integrating dance and drama into the preschool and elementary classroom. Helen resides in Seattle, Washington. Here, she talks about the research that goes into each of her books.
On Friday, December 2nd, Josh Gates --- writer, explorer and host of SyFy’s “Destination Truth” --- was in New York City attending a book signing for his recent work, DESTINATION TRUTH: Memoirs of a Monster Hunter. Teenreads.com’s David Gromer had a chance to sit down with Josh for a brief interview about both his book and show.
