People often ask me, “Do you have a “reason” for writing each of your books?”

Now that I think about it, I guess I do write all of my books for a reason. For each of them, I am, dare I say, “inspired”. After all, it takes quite some time to write a novel and the truth is, it’s long hard work that is very much like running a literary marathon. And just because as an author you have done it before, well… this doesn’t mean that you are not going to sweat, ache, groan and feel like throwing in the towel over the course of any new project just because you have been down the road before. You simply know the terrain better – but you still have to run 26.2 miles.

All authors do.

Writing a book, in this way, is like tackling the task of “eating an elephant”. And, as the old saying goes, the only way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time.

This is why for me, the first bite always has to be fierce inspiration. Why? Because the burning inspiration to write a story is going to die out. It’s gonna fade away. I’ve discovered that at some point, it’s like being on a sugar high; it’s sustenance that is going to get reduced to virtually nothing over the course of writing an entire novel other nutrition is going to be required to complete the book before the journey is through. Tenacity, fortitude, the determination to work a project to it’s rightful end – the hunger to climb Mount Everest if you will – these are the elements that get me through to the completion of books.

But the start of a new book or project? It always has to begin with an idealistic sense of, “Damn, this is gonna be freakin’ GREAT!”

Having said that, each of my writing projects thus has its origin located in a very specific, tangible place for me. There is a seed which has preceded every birth. (And I have now given birth more than 10 times.)

Over the course of the next week, I think I am gonna explore the reasons that inspired me to pen a few of my young adult novels.