Topic of the Week: Why do I write?

Well I am certainly not posting MY picture right after that foxy lady. Nooooo way. Instead you'll have to do with Will MacGregory. It's all his fault anyway. Why I write, that is. That's his picture, that I illustrated for my first book, the mothballed True Voice. I decided I needed to write something to go with the wonderful illustrated YA I was going to produce.

Then one day, while I sat on a porch in Mahopac, NY, this skinny bedraggled 14 year old kid walked out of the woods. Not actually, but he seemed real enough. And he continued to haunt me for the next three years until writing about him totally eclipsed illustrating his shenanigans. Until I realized probably no one wanted an illustrated YA anyway.

By this time I had not only fallen for Will and this entire world of my imagining, but I had fallen head over heels in love with words. Eventually, Will and I parted ways to make room for Xavier and Toby, the darker, creepier and older MCs from my YA novel Darkest, who still speak to me, even though I am midway through my third book, currently untitled.

So for all my friends, students and colleagues who fear I have gone off the deep end. Fear not. I do plan an illustrated MG for my fourth book.

But why do I write?

Because I can't stop. I need to know what happens next.