4 x 4 Blog Hop

Hi all,

I was invited by talented YA fantasy writer Dina von Lowenkraft, author of Dragon Fire, to participate in the 4 x 4 Blog Hop. Thanks for nominating me, Dina!

I hereby answer the questions for the hop:

1.  What are you working on?

I am working on several nonfiction books which focus on how to empower teens to be at their best. This is one of my main motivations given all of our cultural problems with teens today. There is too much technology and too little time to think for themselves.  Peer pressure is at its worse in decades, and teen depression is reaching epidemic proportions. I feel that it is very important for writers and philosophers to try to reach these teens and give them a more positive message than the culture is giving them.

2.  How does your work differ from others in this genre?

Most writers focus on how kids can improve without taking into account that kids are at all different stages in their lives. Some kids don’t live in traditional families, and their values are all eschew. Other kids live in dysfunctional homes. Unless theorists take some of these facts and realities into consideration they won’t be reaching teens but simply creating more theories that are nice and admirable but largely unachievable.

3.  Why do you write what you do?

I write for several reasons.  Mostly I write because I am a writer and because I want to understand the world more. I am also a researcher so, I enjoy reading and writing about so many varied topics.

Also, I write to try to give teens and their parents another option and another way of dealing with all of their difficulties, whatever they may be. None of these problems can be generalized away. So, I try to write about as many large teen problems and then show them a different way of approaching them. My approach is very much to develop their identities and authenticity instead of looking to the culture or society to determine what is right for them.

4.  How does your writing process work?

My writing usually starts with an intuition. Sometimes it starts with an urge in my heart to make things much better for the world around me. I have this idea that I could change the world a bit at a time. I know it is probably idealistic but that is what drives me to my desk and makes me write. I don’t think there is another career where self-understanding can happen at such an intense level. And it through self-understanding that you could understand other situations, culture, and people as well.

And now…I nominate the following author to continue with the 4 x 4 Blog Hop…

Suzanne Lieurance!  She will be continuing this blog hop on May 20th, 2014 at http://www.writebythesea.com