Patricia Dunn, Mount Kisco
Author of Rebels by Accident
Why YA? It didn’t start off as a choice, especially not with Rebels by Accident. I was in a writing class and, through a series of writing prompts, the voice of Mariam started to come through. Someone in class said it was like I was channeling her. And I must have, because I’d never have consciously written in the voice of a teenager. Teens are tough. But whenever I tried to go back to a more adult narrator, Mariam kept fighting her way through and eventually she won. Now, I’m hooked.
What was the most memorable response you’ve ever gotten from a reader? When my 10-year-old niece, an avid reader and tough critic, came to a reading and afterwards slipped me a note and made me promise not to read it until I got home. The note, which hangs on the wall next to my desk, said, “Dear Aunt Tricia, you are my favorite writer in the whole world. I loved your book even more than Harry Potter. Love, Katie. P.S. If you meet J.K. Rowling, don’t tell her what I said.”
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