Have I mentioned that I don’t write YA?

I write novels. Why do the protagonists tend to be teenagers? I really don’t know. I sometimes wish I could write humorous or action-packed middle-grade stuff like the amazing Barbara Park’s JUNIE B. JONES series or Mary Pope Osborne’s MAGIC TREEHOUSE. I can’t get enough of the gorgeous art of folks like Wendy Wahman and Paul Schmid. Heck, I kind of wish I’d been born Agatha Christie or Arthur Conan Doyle if you really want the truth. But I can’t. I don’t. I wasn’t.

I’m me.

Maybe someday I’ll write about protagonists who are older or younger. Maybe someday I’ll write in third person (or maybe even second). Maybe someday, I’ll be done exploring that fascinating, immediate, joyful, tragic, terrifying, limitless epoch that is being a teenager…

• WITHIN a family and a community including CHARACTERS who happen to be parents, teachers, siblings
• WHILE TESTING identities that may or may not fit

• AND EXPLORING friendships and romances for right and wrong reasons
• AND TRYING TO FIGURE out WHAT YOU MIGHT BE GOOD AT and WHO YOU ARE and WHO YOU WANT TO BECOME…and WHY

Actually, I’m still doing all of that. And I’m learning through the medium that, right now, frees my voice and lets me dive deep (albeit sometimes fearfully) into memory, curiosity and hope.

So, no, I don’t write "YA." I write the books I can write in the strongest, most expressive way I can. And I honestly hope that curious people of all ages will read them.