I Heart YA Carnival #7: Look at Me! I'm King of My World!

The I Heart YA Carnival is hosted by Suze Reese, author of the ExtraNormal series. Each Tuesday, a blog prompt will be posted about a topic related to the YA genre. Click the button to learn how to join in!



(A word of explanation, for anyone who noticed and wondered: you caught me. I have a weird thing for organization. It's not really I Heart YA #7... We're actually up to #10. But I missed a few weeks, so to keep my own I Heart YA posts in order, I'll just pick up the post numbering where I left off.)


This week's prompt is: If you're writer, here's your chance to tell us about the people or places that you've created. If you're not, put on your imagination cap and tell us what amazing world you would create if you had the chance.

I am a writer! Nothing published (or even close), but a lot in the works. I was one of those kids who always, always had a notebook with them. My elementary school friends used to ask me to write them stories; I was an author for hire, paid in slap bracelets and pogs. (Flashbacks, 90s kids!)

Nowadays, I write exclusively YA, and mostly paranormal - I like writing about older teens dealing with unusual, extraordinary situations in our own realistic, ordinary world. About things that everyone thinks are impossible or don't exist, but could.

I haven't done too much in the way of fantasy world-building. I kind of like tweaking real places or time periods - like using a medieval-type kingdom setting, but changing the rules of society a bit to allow girls a bigger role in it. Or, in my latest endeavor, bringing time travelers from all different historical periods together, with all different ideas of propriety and gender roles and etc., and trying to figure out how in the heck they would all work together to accomplish something in yet another time period. (I believe a maniacal laugh might be appropriate here.)

I love writing because anything is possible. If I wanted to make up my own world with its own rules, I could. If I wanted to set my story in a small village in 16th century Switzerland, but give everyone wings, I could. If I wanted to use a real historical figure, but rewrite the events of their life, I could. So much is possible, it's mind boggling. (Thus, I wonder why I get writer's block so often - how is THAT possible??)

I may never be a published author, but I will always be a writer. It's what I've always been. I can't imagine going through life without characters and storylines running through my head day in and day out. If my eyes are the only ones that ever read what I write, I'd be perfectly ok with that. But I do hold out hope of seeing my words all bound together in a book one day... :)