A shiny copy of Going Bovine is sitting on my bedside table today and I can’t wait to crack it. I was lucky enough to see Libba Bray speak last Saturday and she seemed like such an organic, prodigious talent. It’s inspiring to see the level of literary creativity in the genre right now. I need to see what I would call “real writers” in YA, because I do get discouraged by some of the extreme genre work out there. Mainly because I know I couldn’t do that kind of work.

When asked what made her write and how she became a writer, Bray told of a personal tragedy that turned her diary into her lifeline… and the rest was history. Thank you, Libba, for sharing this with us and for your courage to busta move out of the expected.

You also have a career in standup should you ever tire of being a Michael L. Prinz Award-winning writer…