Genre: Young Adult, Dystopia
Synopsis:
Sixteen-year-old Lyla lives in a bleak, controlling society where only the brightest and most favored students succeed. When she is caught buying cheats in an underground shadow market, she is tattooed—marked—as a criminal. Then she is offered redemption and she jumps at the chance . . . but it comes at a cost. Doing what is right means betraying the boy she has come to love, and, perhaps, losing even more than she thought possible. Graphic novel–style vignettes revealing the history of this world provide Lyla with guidance and clues to a possible way out of the double bind she finds herself in.
Did you always know you wanted to be a writer or did you want to be something else?
I aways wrote, but I didn’t always want to be a writer. I didn’t really think of writing as a job people did. Also, when I was a kid, I didn’t meet any writers of books for children and teens. There wasn’t any internet, so all I knew about authors was what I learned from the little bios at the backs of their books. I wanted to be a marine biologist for a long time. Later, I wanted to be a history teacher.
Do you have a schedule of when you write?
I do. I get up at 5:30am and I make myself some tea. I procrastinate awhile, and I start working at about 6am. I try to work — write or think about the story — until 10 or 11am. Then I start with email, business stuff, and teaching.
How are you able to balance other aspects of your life with your writing?
I treat writing like a job. I show up almost every morning. I try not to schedule anything else during writing time. I don’t use mornings to chat with friends or to attend appointments. That block of time is an unbreakable commitment, a date with someone important.
How many books have you written so far? Do you have a favorite?
I’ve published two books plus Marked, Alia Waking and Water Shaper. I’ve also published four short stories. I have favorite things about each of them, but I don’t have a favorite book.
Where do you write?
I now have a little room in my house, my witch’s tower. Before it existed, I used to write in my bedroom or in my closet.
When deciding on how to publish, what directed you to the route you took?
I learned about the business. Writing is creative work, and you can learn to become better by studying the stories you love as well as by practicing. Selling books, though, is a business, and so you have to learn about how that business works. I learned from the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, which provides a lot of helpful information. Harold Underdown’s website, The Purple Crayon, was also helpful.
What kinds of advice would you give to someone who wants to start writing?
You need to make the time to write. Maybe you only have time on Sundays. Maybe you have time in the evenings or the mornings. Maybe you have vacation times each year you can use. Whatever your circumstances, create your writing schedule and commit to it. Also read, read, read. When a story really impresses you, sit down and look at it closely. How did the author construct what you love about the story? What might you learn from him or her?
Do you have any go to people when writing a book that help you with your story lines as well as editing, beta reading and such?
I have a writer friend who reads everything. He and I discuss the characters and story. We talk about story structure, sentences, everything. He usually reads a few drafts before I feel ready to submit the story to my agent and my editor.
Are you working on anything now?
Too many things! I have a few novels I want to complete. I’m almost finished a solid draft of one. The other two are a mess. I have a short story I’m finishing, and I have a couple short stories in progress. Like everyone else, I’d love more time to write!
If you could travel anywhere in the world to visit a place so you could use it as a background for a book, where would it be?
This is a very difficult question. I’d like to take a trip around the US and visit the many places I’ve never seen. Also, Ireland. Orkney. Wales. I’d also love to visit Venice. That isn’t one place, is it?
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I read, I write, I teach. I've published short stories in Cicada, YA Review Network, Solstice Literary Magazine, and Soundings Review. Clarion Books will release Marked, my YA dystopian fantasy, in February 2016. My other fantasy novels are WATER SHAPER and ALIA WAKING (both published by Clarion Books). For more information, it's best to visit my website: http://www.laurawilliamsmccaffrey.com
I love dystopian and I love the premise of MARKED!
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