• The Desert Wall,  The Divided World Series

    Where Did Malenie Come From?

    By the time I was in 6th grade, I kinda didn’t want to go to school every day. By the time I was in 9th grade, I really didn’t want to go, and by the time I was in 12th grade, I dreaded going. The problem was bullying. In 6th grade I was awkward and was shy and read SFF when that was totally completely really uncool. I remember reading the Dragonriders of Pern by Anne McCaffrey and a boy telling me, You have to read that nothing book because you’re nothing, too. By 9th grade, the insults were more pointed, the isolation sharper. Sometime after that the threat of…

  • The Divided World Series

    The Red Fortress, coming in 2019

    I thought I’d share a sneak preview of The Red Fortress, the sequel to The Desert Wall. It’s told from Nes’s point of view as she continues the search started in the first book… When I was little, I choked on a chicken bone once. It scraped the sides of my throat, and the bone and panic closed off my breath. I was afraid I was gonna die. Well that’s what it’s like for me most times with words. They stick in my throat and choke me. It doesn’t matter if they’re words of love or anger. I feel like I’m trying to swallow something too big, except I’m trying to…

  • The Desert Wall,  The Divided World Series

    Deserts and Secrets

    The first time I saw a desert I was 15. My parents took me and my sister and cousin to the American Southwest: Zion National Park, the Grand Canyon and Bryce Canyon. It was so different from the Northeast; the sky was so wide, the colors so strong, the mountain shapes against the sky so harsh. Also, it was really hot. My sister and cousin ran down the Grand Canyon and then back up, while my mother and I panted and sweated and poured water on bandanas and put them over our heads and then didn’t have enough water to drink. Each step was an effort. I can’t say that I…