![]() The whole time I was writing, I heard Mama’s southern voice in my head, and I felt Magnolia Grace’s shoulders tense every time she anticipated Mama doing something embarrassing. That story and those characters flew out of me so swiftly I could barely type fast enough to keep up. The first reasonable draft of Georgia Rules (HarperCollins, 2017) only took me eight months to write and get to my editor. That was intentional, so you wouldn’t think it was you.” My mother closed that book, called me on the phone and asked in an almost weepy voice, ”Is that mother me?” Neither my mother nor I are any good at math, not even close, so I thought that would pre-empt any questions from her when she saw how challenged Annie and Mom’s relationship was. I knew the first thing my own mother would ask when she read it was if that mother was modeled after her, so I beat her to it and made Mom a math professor. People who read the book are initially put off by Mom, but forgive her in the end. Twelve-year-old Annie, the main character, struggles with her relationship with her over-protective, controlling mother. Swing Sideways (HarperCollins) was published in 2016. It was the manuscript my agent signed me for in 2010, but back in the heyday of Harry Potter and all things commercial, my then-too-quiet, literary novel didn’t sell.įortunately, my agent had faith in me. It took me 13 years to get that book just right. My third middle grade novel, Lizzie Flying Solo (HarperCollins, 2019), came out a few weeks ago. ![]()
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