Over on the Cynsations blog, I was asked to contribute to “Survivors,” a series of blog posts from and about authors who’ve been in children’s publishing for a long time. How have they managed to stay in the biz? What have they seen come and go?

Given that I perpetually feel like the new kid in any endeavor, it was a little strange to wrap my head around the idea of being a “survivor.” But, yeah — I’ve been doing this for a dozen or so years at this point, with nineteen books in print as I type these words. So, I was happy to contribute whatever meager words of wisdom I possess.

Here are some excerpts:

I’m not the greatest writer in the world, but I’m good enough that publishers seem interested in seeing what I can do for them.

 

If you have books coming out constantly, well, familiarity doesn’t always breed contempt, but it sometimes midwives apathy.

 

I think YA is in the process of changing from marketing category-cum-genre into a political movement. I can’t think of another example of this sort of transmogrification in the art-space and I’m very curious to see where it leads.

Read the complete interview over at Cynsations!