Just A Little Update

I’ve been feeling super busy (which may or may not be different from actually being really busy) this week, but I realized this morning that I haven’t written about myself in awhile. So for anyone who’s interested (hi mom!) here are a few things I’ve been up to since January. 

I’m now about half way through my spring semester. My writing workshop is with the fantastic Tor Seidler (who has a new middle grade book about wolves that came out last week). He is really pushing me to examine my writing on a sentence level, even though he thinks my male characters might be a little unrealistic (aka too dreamy). I’m also taking a literature class on fear and anxiety in children’s books. So far we’ve been covering picture books, and next week we start middle grade books. For my midterm, I wrote a picture book about losing my teddy bear Cinnamon in a hotel room when I was eight. I definitely have a whole new appreciation for how hard it is to write books for little kids.

I’ve been trying to enjoy New York as much as possible during the incredibly cold weeks that are hopefully now behind us. I’ve never been able to write in coffee shops before, but I’ve been meeting once or twice a week with friends from school to write together. I love writing, but it can be a really lonely and solitary process. This has definitely helped with that feeling and kept me on track to keep making progress every week.

Since I worked on my first novel for four years, it still is really strange to be writing about new characters and new plots for class. It still feels like I’m flying blind, but overall I’m so glad my teachers and classmates have pushed me to try so many new things. I’m splitting most of my time between two projects and hopeful that one of them will turn into my first published novel.

A few weeks ago, I spent a weekend away at one of my best friend’s bachelorette party up in the Berkshires. During the trip I stopped by Smith College, which was magical because I haven’t been back since graduating. I also just had a really lovely weekend where my sister visited. The cold weather finally broke and we had the most fun walking across Central Park.

Now I’m getting super excited for the NYC Teen Author Festival next week and am reading as many of the participants’ books as possible this weekend in preparation. Hope everyone’s having a lovely Thursday!