Wednesday, April 28, 2010


Aspiration and Admiration

(This is a duplicate post to the one on my YA blog today. Forgive me, but sometimes they're good for both).

Today, my friend Shawn posted an interview with my (I wanna say friend)  K.L. Going (click there, or SEE LINK BELOW). She's not "really" my friend, but we've spoken on the phone a few times, and she's critiqued some of my early manuscripts, and I even helped her out once, with something small she needed.

Why am I proud of this fact? Why do I wish I could call K.L.Going a friend?

Because I admire her. She's brilliant. She's everything as a YA writer I hope to be.

I didn't know this when I first pulled, The Liberation of Gabriel King off the B&N shelf years ago, but I knew it the minute I read it to my kids. And I knew it when I bought St. Iggy after it, and as each of her new, award-winning novels come out. K.L.'s characters come alive, her stories are both poignant and funny, her writing is both beautiful and evocative and accessible.

As a YA writer, I aspire to be one iota as good as K.L.Going. If you haven't read her, you should.

Who makes you aspire and admire? Who is your K.L.Going?

3 comments:

  1. Without a doubt, Karen Connelly -- a brilliant Canadian writer who committed two of her most wonderful works so far to the struggle in Burma (The Lizard Cage and Burmese Stories). I love them so much, I bookmarked them on my own blog.

    And I love HER so much -- I saw her a few times at readings, and she's incredibly inspiring and gifted. And, LO AND BEHOLD, the fates threw us together recently and I went out on a limb and she has agreed to edit my ms! So I really relate to your sentiments here.

    Barbara

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  2. It was a fantastic interview and I highlighted it on my blog today, too. How can we not?

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