I write for so many reasons. I write because I love good books--love the exhilaration that comes from a great story. I write because I hope that my books may reach others and give them something they need, the way books did for me when I was growing up--and still do. I write realistic fiction because I want others to know that they are not alone. I hope that a teen may hand someone one of my books and say, "Read this. This is what it's like for me," and maybe that person will give them greater understanding or compassion. I write fantasy because I hope that someone will find it inspiring. And I write for myself. I write because I need to. Sometimes to get things out, sometimes to speak to others.

Children's author Barbara Greenwood speaks beautifully about why authors need honesty in our writing:

"Children read to learn what might happen to them next. As writers, we have an obligation to be honest in our writing. We've lived longer, had more thoughts about our experiences; we know what life is like. We need to be as honest as we can about our experiences. We do children a disservice if we present life in a sentimental light. We need to be completely honest, as long as we use common sense about the type of experiences that are suitable to the readers' ages.

Children want to know what might happen next. A story is a safe place for them to experience dangerous situations. When a child reader finds him/herself in a real-life dangerous situation, they can remember the lesson they learned from the book."

- Barbara Greenwood

This quote from Bill Barich also speaks to me:

"A good writer refuses to be socialized. He insists on his own version of things, his own consciousness. And by doing so he draws the reader's eye from its usual groove into a new way of seeing."

- Bill Barich

Dragon Speaker: The Last Dragon is a hi-lo (high interest, low vocabulary) fantasy for teens and fantasy lovers, from HIP Books.

A boy who speaks with birds is the only one who can save the last dragon....

SCARS is an edgy teen novel, coming out in the Spring of 2010 from Westside Books.

Kendra must face her past and stop hurting herself--before it's too late.

My paranormal-suspense story The Healer is published in an anthology by Red Deer Press (The Horrors Terrifying Tales: Book Two).










Read an excerpt from The Healer.
Click here.

The Horrors Terrifying Tales: Book Two
Peter Carver (ed),Toronto: Red Deer Press, 2006.
ISBN 0889953384.
Paperback.

Available at: Amazon.com
Amazon.ca
and many local independent bookstores and libraries.

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My edgy realistic short story 'Comfort Food' is published in an anthology by Graveside Tales (Fried! Fast Food, Slow Deaths ).



Fried! Fast Food, Slow Deaths
by Colleen Morris and Joel A. Sutherland (Ed), Graveside Tales, 2007.
ISBN-13: 978-0980133806
Paperback.

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