What’s the hardest part about writing YA lit?:
Once I have the characters in mind, the dialogue just seems to show up for the age group. Sometimes it feels like I’m overhearing their conversations. The setting is actually more difficult to control, making sure it suits YA interests, so I’m not just putting the characters down in a place that has no value for them, or that requires them to respond the way adults would.
When exactly did you know you wanted to be a writer?:
That’s easy. I was five and wanted to change a story I was being told. Once I learned how to read for myself, I’d make little books, sometimes with cutouts, and add captions.
Have you found any clever ways to market your books to YA readers?:
Not yet. That is what led me to find your website, so that I can explore ways to get the stories in front of the audience I want to entertain.
What YA books have had the biggest influence on your writing?:
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, A Wrinkle in Time, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, The Sword in the Stone, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and Nancy Drew
Short author bio: My stories have appeared in Thrice Fiction, Kzine, Bewildering Stories, Subtle Fiction, Mad Scientist Journal, Over My Dead Body!, and NewMyths.com, among others. In the spring of 2012 I was a finalist in the Hollywood SCRIPTOID Screenwriter’s Feature Challenge for my script about a mother seeking the disabled child she had abandoned, in “Second Chances.” I have also written and published a number of books on Amazon. My wish is to bring to others a good read, a respite from the frenetic pace we sometimes live, and most of all, a way to enter into another way of seeing.
When not writing, I read mysteries, watch film noir and science fiction B-grade movies (not averse to 1950s C-grade), practice metaphysics, study psychic and shamanistic experiences, watch favorite television shows, and listen to Mozart and Willie Nelson, among others. I love wildlife, especially birds and wolves.
Life includes a brilliant, talkative, and very green eclectus parrot named Harry, and amazing friends, and I live in the gorgeous Hudson River Valley of upstate New York.
Twitter: ReginaClarke1
Website: http://www.regina-clarke.com
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